XOSL
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
xOSL(meaning Extended Operating System Loader) is the name of a bootloader, which is a program product class that launches operating systems from a bootable device such as a hard disk or floppy drive. The letters are an acronym that stand for eXtended Operating System Loader. xOSL was originally developed by Geurt Vos.
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[edit] Basic Appeal
xOSL provides an attractive graphical user interface which allows the user to easily set up and boot a computer into any of 24 different operating systems. xOSL is nondenominational bootloader, owing allegiance to no system in particular, and booting them all equally well.
The xOSL interface installs and uninstalls easily. The xOSL program poses very little risk of permanent damage to existing data. The xOSL solution is highly portable (less than 1mB) and incorporates tasteful menu boxes and interfaces.
The program requires very little time to configure, it utilizes highly intuitive controls
note- The 24 system limititation is imposed by the physical space available on the operating system menu. Theoretically, the program could support an infinite number of operating systems. By 'chainloading' the bootloader, users have reported booting vastly more operating systems than the program is claimed to support.
[edit] History
xOSL is free software released under the GPL license. The project was actively developed by Geurt Vos between 1999 and 2001 and spanned four major revisions and two minor revisions after its initial creation.
From its origin in xOSL version 1.0.0, xOSL underwent major changes in ver. 1.1.0, 1.1.1, 1.1.2 and 1.1.3. These revisions were significant departures from one another, and introduced new and revolutionary features to the program. These features ranged from drastic user interface improvements to improved compatibility on diverse hardware platforms.
xOSL ver. 1.1.4 and 1.1.5 only introduced improvements to existing functionality and repaired features that should have been functional in their predecessors. Although their improvements were subtle, they did serve to stabilize a developing protocol, and are the most polished revisions of the original to date.
The project lapsed into a dormant state and was abandoned by its original developer from 2001-2007. xOSL remained available for download and use throughout this period.
[edit] Survivability
Despite the lack of active product development, an enthusiastic community of xOSL users began exchanging ideas and product results through the use of Yahoo! Groups and other support sites on the internet. These groups became the foundation of the 'xOSL Culture.' The xOSL groups assisted fellow members with advice and accomplishments through the use of xOSL. The original xOSL site was mirrored in multiple locations after its removal by Mikhail Ranish and by members of the informal organizations.
The cult-like devotion to xOSL gave credibility to the idea that the future development of xOSL was an inevetability. xOSL was peerless in a niche market. Other bootloaders such as Lilo and Grub performed effectively, but xOSL survived and continued to thrive as time passed without development support or a marketing platform of any kind.
Very few enhancements to the original product occurred during this time, most of them were fairly inconsequential. One such enhancement gave the user the ability to change wallpapers and the image displayed at startup, and like most other revisions, it did not add a great deal to the program in terms of core functionality.
Other revisions included the translation of xOSL into several different languages, giving credibility to its world wide appeal. These languages include German, Czech and French, among others.
[edit] xOSL2
Responding to the steady demand for an updated xOSL, John Marlowe has continued the development of the product under the XOSL2 title. Many xOSL purists believe that the renumetation of the product is somewhat premature, if not totally inappropriate.
The product boasts that it has added CD support, when in fact the original xOSL incorporated installation from a CD device. Visually and functionally, the product is basically unchanged, except for a somewhat gaudy startup screen that bears the xOSL2 logo instead of the classic xOSL logo.
At best, it seems 'xOSL2' would be more appropriately named xOSL CD, since no major enhancements were introduced, merely a streamlined CD install process. Most view the new package as window dressing updates.
Essentially, users of xOSL have been waiting for some of the following features-
- Support for Apple's HFS+ FileSystem.
- The option to add drivers for Peripheral USB and PCMCIA devices and then use them as boot devices from Smart Boot Manager.
- Support for Windows Vista, as well as future revisions for the Windows operating system, such as Windows 7.
- Additional support packages for modifying the xOSL GUI
At this time, development of xOSL2 may be discontinued.
[edit] Conclusions
Currently xOSL is capable of booting operating systems from a variety of format types. These include, and may not be lmited to-
Fat (File Allocation Table) Fat16 Fat32 NTFS (New Technology File System)
EXT2 EXT3 ReiserFS
These are among the most widely used file formats in service, and a large part of the reason for the success of xOSL.
Other reasons for the success of xOSL include its compact size. Its primary loation is in the MBR where it references items on the physical hard drive for its GUI and other features. As long a drive is formated in FAT32, xOSL does not require additional partitioning. The FAT32 drive on which xOSL resides does not need to be the first partition of the drive.
Other features include-
- User-friendly Graphical User Interface
- Full windowing system with mouse and keyboard support
- Resolutions up to 1600x1200
- Configurable mouse speed
- A set of color schemes
- Several color adjustment options
- Password protected boot configuration and settings
- Restart/Reboot/Shutdown
Booting Features
- Up to 24 boot items
- Microsoft file system partition hiding support
- Storing additional keys before booting
- Activate partitions (one per system or one per HD)
- Automatic booting (with timeout)
- Auto boot last operating system
- Password protection per boot item
- Boot master boot record on any drive
- Boot DOS/Windows 9x on any drive
- Hotkey per boot item
- Support for hard disks larger than 8Gb
- Coexists with virtually any other boot manager
- Runs Ranish Partition Manager 2.38 beta 1.91 (ver 1.1.5 and above)
- Master boot record virus protection
The continued development of xOSL is almost entirely dependent on individual user contributions and community participation.
