[CentOS] virtualization on the desktop a myth, or a reality?

[Stephen Harris]

On Thu, Mar 03, 2011 at 07:10:26AM -0500, Phil Savoie wrote:
> On 03/03/2011 06:43 AM, Kevin K wrote:
> > On Mar 3, 2011, at 6:38 AM, Always Learning wrote:
> >> two operating systems.  Surely that constitutes simultaneous access to
> >> storage? 
> > 
> > If you are tri-booting, how are you accessing the file systems of the
> > other OS's "at the same time"?  Don't you have to reboot to change OS's?

> When booting a system with multiple operating systems, it is true that
> only one operating system may be in use at one time, however, those
> other  operating systems are installed on the disk in partitions.  These
> partitions may be mounted like any other filesystem, hence the ability
> to use them while a single instance of an operating system is running.
> It's all done via the /etc/fstab and through mount options.

I think people are misunderstanding the word "simultaneous"; in a multi-boot
environment each OS as unique access to the filesystem.  Sure Linux can
access the NTFS filesystem and make changes, but while Linux is accessing
the device then Windows is not.  There is no _simultaneous_ access; it's
one OS or the other, not both at the same time.

-- 

rgds
Stephen