Linode Emulator

An emulator for what?

-- sw

Bluestack, MEmu, NoxPlayer etc.

Bluestack

You can only download this for Windows and Mac - Linodes only run Linux, so no.

MEmu

Looks like this only runs on Windows - so no.

NoxPlayer

Same as Bluestck - you can only download this for Windows and Mac, Linodes only run Linux, so no.

@andysh writes:

Linodes only run Linux, so no.

There are a few here that run Windows on a Linode. It's not supported and there are (lots of) technical hurdles but, apparently, it can be done.

It's not supported though…

-- sw

There are a few here that run Windows on a Linode

Oh really? That’d be interesting to give a shot!

I think I read somewhere that they are looking at Windows as an official option… or maybe I dreamt that?!?!

(EDIT: no I didn’t dream reading this article!)

I can imagine there’d be a lot to do for this, not least how embedded ext4 is in several areas of the platform.

Of course that would open the doors for other non-Linuxes, like FreeBSD, something I know you’d appreciate ;-)

@andysh writes:

Of course that would open the doors for other non-Linuxes, like FreeBSD, something I know you’d appreciate ;-)

I'm already in the middle of upgrading my home development environment to FreeBSD. Once all my stuff is ported, I'm going to deploy it to a FreeBSD Linode with borg backups to a block storage volume…and say goodbye to Linux.

A lot of this is largely in place…most of the porting was done during my previous experiments with FreeBSD/NetBSD on Linode. I can use block storage as the installer boot volume during installation so I don't have to dedicate a disc partition to an installer I'll only use once…

After that's all done, I'll migrate the backups to object storage (using s3fuse)…which will be accessible to my home development environment as well.

There's lots to dislike about Linux distros these days:

• most distros have become just collections of systemd(8) services (a bloated solution in search a problem, IMHO);
• the proliferation of Canonical snap-ins (a blatant attempt at lock-in);
• ext4, lvm & gcc have all run out of gas;
• GPL3 is a curse;
• lazy software packaging (e.g., when I install a package like crm114 -- a 1.8M statically-linked C program -- I get this:

The following additional packages will be installed:
  fonts-lato javascript-common libjs-jquery libruby2.5 mew-bin rake ruby
  ruby-did-you-mean ruby-minitest ruby-net-telnet ruby-power-assert
  ruby-sqlite3 ruby-test-unit ruby-xmlrpc ruby2.5 rubygems-integration
  stunnel4

ALL of an almost-EOL ruby release, an Emacs email composition framework, jquery and a font…none of which have anything at all to do with what crm114 does…just insane!). I could go on… It seems that the likes of the Gnome desktop is trying take over the world and an X Server is going to be a required piece of every distribution (whether you need it or not).

-- sw

and say goodbye to Linux.

I'm surprised you are going to FreeBSD because most people I know (including myself) are leaving that platform for Ubuntu or another Linux flavor.

For example, a very large and well-known ISP called pair dot com ran ALL their thousands of servers on FreeBSD but are now converting over to Ubuntu. They say security support and performance is better.

I'm still a fan of FreeBSD but I run Ubuntu here because there is simply a mega-huge community for it. No matter what you want to do or what question you might have on administering an Ubuntu server, someone has done it and has the answer via a quick search.

I think FreeBSD is a better designed operating system than Linux, but bottom line I just want everything to work, to not break, to be easily upgraded, and basically let me 'set it and forget it' beyond the weekly chore of…

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade  

and a "once in a while" reboot after doing…

sudo needrestart 

YMMV ( https://mailanc2.net/urls9296/d0z76 )

@acanton77 writes:

I'm surprised you are going to FreeBSD because most people I know (including myself) are leaving that platform for Ubuntu or another Linux flavor.

We obviously hang with different crowds…

For example, a very large and well-known ISP called pair dot com ran ALL their thousands of servers on FreeBSD but are now converting over to Ubuntu.

They have a different "business model" than me. I don't have to make money ;-) Because of that, I can pursue excellence instead of chasing market share.

They say security support and performance is better.

Unless you can cite specific examples/evidence/statements supporting your claim, spare me… "They" say that the moon landing was faked. "They" say that incidents of domestic violence increase during the Super Bowl. “They” say Paul is dead. "They" say that the earth is flat.

I'm still a fan of FreeBSD but I run Ubuntu here because there is simply a mega-huge community for it. No matter what you want to do or what question you might have on administering an Ubuntu server, someone has done it and has the answer via a quick search.

IMHO, 90% of the script-kiddie "experts" out there can’t solve a simple arithmetic problem without a calculator, too. There's lots of cross-over between Linux and FreeBSD -- utilities, shell scripting, programming languages, etc. I'll bet that, in most cases, whatever solution you discover (absent ones that involve Linux-/distro-only BS like systemd) will solve the same problem on BSD.

I think FreeBSD is a better designed operating system than Linux,

An understatement, for sure… This (and ZFS) is the crux of the matter for me.

but bottom line I just want everything to work, to not break, to be easily upgraded, and basically let me 'set it and forget it' beyond the weekly chore of…

What makes you think you can't achieve this with BSD?

Linux (and Linus, IMHO) are too beholden to the corporations that fund the Linux Foundation. They claim "we're just about the kernel" but the reality is that their job is to keep the corporate distro vendors happy with every kind of ill-conceived bell/whistle that will enable every kind of experimentation possible on the user community with "breakthrough" technologies that have a shelf life that ends at the next marketing press release (anyone remember when the Wayland display server was going to displace X Windows?).

Linux was supposed to be "Unix for the rest of us". Open source was supposed to set us all free. Instead, it's all devolved into a "Linux-industrial-complex" with a "We're not Windoze…we're open source!" marketing message that is so shrill that might as well read "New! Improved! Now with OxiClean!"

What’s innovative about any of that? Mostly, it's just a giant pit of quicksand to avoid…

-- sw