Windows 8 To Natively Support ISO and VHD Mounting 656
MrSeb writes "With a masterful nail in the optical disc coffin, Microsoft has announced that its new operating system will natively mount ISO disc images. On the slightly more enterprisesque side of the equation, VHD files will also be supported by Windows 8. Both new features will be smoothly integrated into Windows 8 Explorer's ribbon menu, and mounting an ISO or VHD is as simple as double clicking the file. This is obviously an important addition with Windows 8 being available on tablets — and in a year or two, it wouldn't be surprising if all software is made available as an ISO on a USB drive which can be read by tablet and PC alike."
Sadly, I think Apple might win on this one (Score:5, Interesting)
it wouldn't be surprising if all software is made available as an ISO on a USB drive which can be read by tablet and PC alike
I hate to say it, but I think Apple's "walled garden" formula is probably the one that's most likely to succeed--for tablets anyway. No loading software on USB drives (Apple's tablets don't even have USB ports), no mounting ISO's, no unapproved outside software. Everything is downloaded through the official app store. And Apple/Microsoft get their cut, of course.
Even more scary is the possibility that this could become the model for not just tablets, but also PC's in the future. About the only thing stopping this now is tradition and bandwidth limitations/download caps. The days of walking into Best Buy and buying a game or application and getting a physical copy of the software could well be numbered. Of course, Linux will still be there, but how many developers will devote resources to Linux development when Apple and MS can pretty much guarantee them a locked-down, piracy-free platform (even if they do take a cut of the action)? For that matter, how many hardware developers will be making locked-down PC's that won't even let you install Linux without some hardware hacking?
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Re:Sadly, I think Apple might win on this one (Score:5, Insightful)
Linux will still be there, but how many developers will devote resources to Linux development when Apple and MS can pretty much guarantee them a locked-down, piracy-free platform (even if they do take a cut of the action)?
The same people that do it now - for the same cut they take now. Mostly because people working on such products don't want restricted platforms. They enjoy the ability to install what *they* want too. This crap about protecting me from myself and not letting me install {mal,crap,free,whatever}ware is preposterous and an idea I'd happily see put in the bin.
Re:Sadly, I think Apple might win on this one (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Sadly, I think Apple might win on this one (Score:5, Insightful)
At some point you have to ask yourself _why_ people have so much "junk" installed on their computers. I'd wager at least part of it is due to the users wanting to install anything they want yet not knowing how to weed out the bad from the good. Saying that the solution (and the one the user wants) is to take that freedom away just seems, silly. If the solution to my family not installing malware/viruses/etc is to totally wall up a garden and only allow them to install pre-approved apps.. you can count my family out, and I'd guess a lot more users as well.
There are times I like to just install small apps that help out with little things (mythtv remote, vlc remote, stock ticker, etc) on my phone. That's fine. Heck, I don't even want to do much more than trivial things on my phone and that works great. But to suggest that that is the only experience I, or even most users want from all computing devices, including their PC?
Sure, many tasks might be replaced by a tablet, or even a phone or console. But for everything else, there is a PC. Unfortunately, with great power comes great responsibility. The PC tool can do a lot and a lot can be done to it (maliciously even) and you have to be educated enough to use it, at least properly. But ok, for those that have no need for one and don't really care about what's going on in the wonderful world of software, a walled garden, Angry Birds experience can also be had.
But I would agree there are quite a few people I know that _should_ be in a walled garden _all_ the time. They simply can't be trusted to not click every single pop-up that says they won something, etc.
Unlike iOS, Android has Unknown sources (Score:5, Informative)
Just look at how quickly Apple's iPhone took off, with its walled-garden app store. And then Android came along, with the exact same concept, and it's been doing great too.
Unlike iPhone, Android phones don't lock out applications obtained outside the Market. AT&T used to hide the "Unknown sources" checkbox until earlier this year [tgdaily.com] when popular demand for Amazon Appstore forced AT&T to either reconsider or lose customers at contract renewal. But even AT&T phones still supported and continue to support adb install.
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Yeah, except that half the programs from that era went and modified your autoexec.bat or *.ini files in haphazard ways. Then they each had their own default location to save files to - often just c:\, or c:\docs, or even c:\windows! Then there's the fact that they all shared the same memory space, so one app gone rogue would take down everything..
I'll take Windows 7's UAC and click-once installation any day.
Re:Sadly, I think Apple might win on this one (Score:4, Insightful)
Just like any other environment, the walled garden is susceptible to crapware of varying degrees. Just because you are apparently too enamored with the idea to pay attention to the reality is no reason to throw away a perfectly good and more importantly FREE as in LIBRE environment.
If the problem is retarded users, then fine, FIX THE FUCKING PROBLEM. If your solution is to lock down the platform and then only give users "approved" software... you are a tool.
Maybe the paradigm shift we need is that not every moron needs a computer. You can fetch your email, stupid pictures and your friends status updates via any connected device. Maybe it's far past time to stop pretending that computers are anything other than highly specialized tools... that 75% of the population doesn't have the first clue how to operate.
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Do like I did:
"My computer has xyz problems."
-"OK I'll fix."
*Three fixes later...*
"My computers is broken again"
-"Sigh! OK you either are going to learn how to properly use Windows and install it yourself, or I'm installing Ubuntu on that thing, because you obviously can't ask me to take 3 hours on a monthly basis to fix the problems that you create everytime you use it."
*installing Ubuntu*
Never ever heard anything about a virus ever again. Pentium 4 still runs like a champion, can do YouTube, Facebook, mus
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a locked-down, piracy-free platform
Bwahahahahaha!! Oh, you're serious? Here, let me help you...
Link 1 [btjunkie.org]
Link 2 [hackulo.us]
Re:Sadly, I think Apple might win on this one (Score:5, Informative)
IOS piracy is there, but it's not prevalent.
I didn't say it was prevalent or not. Maybe it is and maybe it isn't. Do you have statistics? The person I responded to said that iOS is piracy free which judging from the links I gave is an uninformed joke.
First, it requires you to jailbreak
There are millions of jailbroken iOS devices. Cydia's business model is based on that fact and they rake in millions yearly. Jailbreaking is such a reality today that there is a specific exemption from the DMCA specifically for it.
Then you have to patch the installer application to not verify IPA file signatures, this enables pirated IPAs to run.
You make it sound like people have to break out a hex editor. Don't make me laugh. It's a one-click affair.
Even then, it's obvious you're running a pirated binary - the OS requires a special set of keys to be present in the info.plist file so that it can run a decrypted binary (this same key is also present inside beta-test apps). Oh yeah, info.plist is in the same directory as the app itself, so it exists inside the sandbox and the app is perfectly free to access it at will. So it already knows it's pirated. (Many apps use this as it's basically foolproof - there's no way to avoid it).
Matters none as the ipa's themselves are patched. And Installous makes it easier to download and install programs than the app store does. I have never seen a platform that the user has an easier time finding and downloading apps than iOS and installous.
Contrast this with Android, where it seems piracy is basically prevalent
Contrast what? That it is trivial to pirate on both platforms and any developer who thinks his precious is safe from Teh Piratez just because of the platform he writes it for is sadly deluded. As are you.
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That battle was lost on Slashdot thanks to Apple fans and Microsoft haters. Everyone was up in the arms about Palladium and DRM in Windows, but when it came to Apple, it was a meek surrender on here without a whimper to some extremely strong and abusive DRM. And we still hear some nonsense about DRM in Vista and Windows 7.
Explain "Strong and Abusive DRM" (Score:5, Interesting)
it was a meek surrender on here without a whimper to some extremely strong and abusive DRM.
Look, I was and am a staunch fighter against DRM.
But that was mostly for media, because I wanted the ability to easily transfer files between devices. For music, Apple is the company that finally ended DRM. For that you should thank and support them, not curse them.
For video the matter is different, but note that when it is up to Apple - for instance in the case of the WWDC videos for developers - there is no DRM present on the media. So plainly Apple would just drop DRM video if they could, but content providers have not seen the light yet. In fact Apple just dropped a more advanced use of Video DRM - TV rentals.
Lastly we come down to applications, which is what you may be talking about. But here the DRM is a benefit to most people, because it ensures you have a signed application that you know has not been tampered with. It is about as un-restrictive as such a system could be - Apple mandates developers allow the application to be distributed across multiple devices, when some application developers would make you pay per-device if they could.
So in what way is what little DRM Apple uses "abusive"? Please give clear examples.
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Um, I have to jailbreak an Apple device that *I* own to do what *I* want with it? This is like saying "To make sure you don't electrocute yourself or burn down the house you bought, the local authority is going to control what you plug in to any given 15 amp socket."
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Um, I have to jailbreak an Apple device that *I* own to do what *I* want with it? This is like saying "To make sure you don't electrocute yourself or burn down the house you bought, the local authority is going to control what you plug in to any given 15 amp socket."
They do, via "UL Listing" and innumerable safety and electrical code requirements. Its just not overly draconian.
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Um, I have to jailbreak an Apple device that *I* own to do what *I* want with it? This is like saying "To make sure you don't electrocute yourself or burn down the house you bought, the local authority is going to control what you plug in to any given 15 amp socket."
They do, via "UL Listing" and innumerable safety and electrical code requirements. Its just not overly draconian.
That's QA, not DRM. The Apple model is more like: "No flying toasters [youtube.com]. Because they draw too many amps. They don't draw more than 15 on their own, but they draw 3.1-7.5a. They meet the spec, but if you plug in two of them, you might trip a breaker as 6.2-15a is too close to tolerance, and at the very least, your lights going dim makes Apple's iHouse look bad. Yes! I know your kitchen has 20a outlets. Too bad. You might try to make 8 slices of flying toast in your bedroom. So no flying toasters."
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No, I can build my own light and plug it into my wall.
UL certification is a safety certification. If it was run by Apple, you wouldn't be allowed to plug in anything they deemed 'offensive', and the would want 30% of everything you buy the plugs into the wall.
It would be like a company having a certification for software that says it safe to use. That is completely different the restricting exactly what you can plug in.
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Actually many local municipalities have passed laws making it illegal for a homeowner to do any electrical work and force them to hire a licensed contractor.
It's one of the most heinous law trends out there for propping up a trade.
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<grumbling>This is like buying a motorcycle and being upset it doesn't have a trunk. If you wanted a trunk, don't buy a motorcycle...
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No, this is like being upset because Honda wont LET you put a trunk on it. Or have to give you permission on what type of equipment you can put on the motorcycle. If any car company acted like Apple, there would be outrage.
We are also talking about something you buy INTO. It's not like I can buy one, and then say oops, what a doofus I was. I have a contract I have to keep paying on, so consumer protection is needed.
If you're attitude was prevalent in the auto industry, no one would have seat belts.
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For music, Apple is the company that finally ended DRM. For that you should thank and support them, not curse them.
I keep seeing this quoted as gospel. I remember it far differently, in fact Apple publicly complained about DRM for a long time but did very little to leverage their massive buying power (they were basically the only player in town at the time) to rid us of it. It was only when several other big names [engadget.com] in the industry started moving towards DRM-free that Apple seemed to realise there had been a sea-change in what customers wanted and, very late in the day, announced that they would follow suit. Of course the
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Apple was offering DRM-free stuff before with iTunes Plus, which had (initially) all EMI tracks available for 30 more, DRM-free, and at double the quality (256Kbps). That was in May of 2007, several months before Amazon's store. In October, possibly in response or tied with Amazon's launch, they dropped the price of iTunes Plus content to the usual 99. By the time Amazon launched its store in France and Germany, all but the Japanese iTunes store had DRM-free music.
Which isn't to say that it was all Apple th
You missed an item (Score:3)
You missed the part where AFTER:
Music owners start selling non-DRM'd tracks outside of the iTMS.
Came the followup item:
Nobody buys from the competitors
Even now that is mostly true, most tracks sold are from iTunes.
It was only at that point that Apple had the leverage to convince the studios to let go of DRM in music, in exchange for which Apple let them have some pricing variance.
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But that's the definition of a jailbreak. Everybody who wants to can do so trivially.
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For starters, i cannot put on my iDevice my own MP3's without going through the iProprietarytunes scanner.
You can put your own mp3's on your ipod with gtkpod. I've been using it for years and it's less annoying than itunes.
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Even more scary is the possibility that this could become the model for not just tablets, but also PC's in the future. About the only thing stopping this now is tradition and bandwidth limitations/download caps
And the fact that its hard to make the business case for paying $1500 per upgraded workstation rather than $500? And that Microsoft could never pull off an Appstore like Apple did? (anyone remember the Windows Marketplace, haha?)
Microsoft's app stores (Score:2)
And that Microsoft could never pull off an Appstore like Apple did
So how exactly do Xbox Live Arcade and Xbox Live Indie Games fail?
CS101: Programming on paper (Score:4, Insightful)
Even more scary is the possibility that [requiring all applications to have been digitally signed by a device's manufacturer] could become the model for not just tablets, but also PC's in the future.
Then how would computer science education work? Would schools be able to afford $99 per platform per student per year "programmer's licenses", or would schools switch to a model preferred by E. W. Dijkstra [wikipedia.org] in which all programming assignments are done on paper?
About the only thing stopping this now is tradition and bandwidth limitations/download caps.
Given the general failure to expand the single digit GB/mo cap for wireless (satellite and cellular) Internet access in the United States market, I don't see this happening as soon as some alarmists predict.
For that matter, how many hardware developers will be making locked-down PC's that won't even let you install Linux without some hardware hacking?
Given the general trend of opening up, from the BREW model (just slightly more open than a game console, must convince wireless carriers to carry the product) to the Xbox Live Indie Games/iPhone model ($99 per year plus 30% of sales, open to all adult developers in supported countries, approval rules are public) to the old Android model (locked bootloader, but "adb install" allowed and usually also "Unknown sources") to the new Android model promoted by HTC (unlocked bootloader), I don't see this happening as soon as some alarmists predict.
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Even more scary is the possibility that [requiring all applications to have been digitally signed by a device's manufacturer] could become the model for not just tablets, but also PC's in the future.
Then how would computer science education work? Would schools be able to afford $99 per platform per student per year "programmer's licenses", or would schools switch to a model preferred by E. W. Dijkstra [wikipedia.org] in which all programming assignments are done on paper?
All taught thru something like tryruby.org, or done entirely in javascript in a browser.
"Recently" I've heard of two classes being taught by logging into servers and working there. I took an advanced COBOL debugging class on a AS/400 and never used COBOL again, and a friend took a C++ class where he ssh'd into a department linux server. I believe they logged heavily to detect cheaters (hmm, this guy matches that guy, and that guy spent a total of 4 hours and 100 invocations of vim and g++, and the other g
Good luck teaching human interface design (Score:2)
and a friend took a C++ class where he ssh'd into a department linux server.
In the alarmists' view: Good luck teaching a human interface design class if your students can't find a not-locked-down PC on which to run an X server.
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Simple. CS needs to be more advanced.
Computers 101 - introduction to your computer
Computers 201 - introduction to bios programming
Computers 301 - OS design HURD and Linux
Computers 401 - Legal ramifications of owning a non-blessed computer and how to hide it from the InforMation Technology Ministry.
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I remember Windows domination quite well.
That's a walk in the park compared to a platform where the likes of GEM, Linux, and GCC can never even get installed.
Licensed C64 Emulator Rejected From App Store (Score:2)
If that were inadequate, some professor would create a development environment that suites his/her needs and distribute it for free in the app store.
Apple would probably just reject it, just as it had rejected some old Commodore 64 games two years ago because the emulator they ran in allowed the user to reset the emulated machine to the REPL of ROM BASIC [slashdot.org].
And if that weren't good enough, you could do what my school did and have all homework assignments done on a server
Which would, in the alarmists' prediction, require a separate paid-up programmer's license per user account.
Re:CS101: Programming on paper (Score:4, Informative)
"First of all even Apple doesn't prevent you from writing code. XCode is free, and can compile native OSX code, and can run iOS code in an emulator."
so where do I download a Linux or Windows version of this XCode?
Oh wait, you have to buy OSX and a Apple device (MacMini) in order to do this. That is hardly free.
and yes, I CAN write windows software under Linux or BSD. IT is a fair point.
Native development (Score:3)
Oh wait, you have to buy OSX and a Apple device (MacMini) in order to do this. That is hardly free.
I think AC's point is that anyone who owns a Mac can program for a Mac and test on a Mac.
and yes, I CAN write windows software under Linux or BSD.
So how do you test your Windows software under Linux or FreeBSD without installing a copy of Windows into VirtualBox? Or do you want your software to rely on Wine bugs?
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I have no problem with regular users being somewhat walled in, but the idea that I should be forced to play some hardware vendors game for my own good is pretty noxious to me. It is a substantial step backwards.
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The garden doesn't even have to be walled.
Just present the user interfaces to the user as you want them to be used.
Leave the rest of the system to those that care and would bother. If people are such rubes anyways, they simply aren't going to be able to find the sharp edges that they can cut themselves on. The whole prison lock down thing really isn't necessary.
The future is here now, and it is better (Score:4, Insightful)
Even more scary is the possibility that this could become the model for not just tablets, but also PC's in the future. About the only thing stopping this now is tradition and bandwidth limitations/download caps. The days of walking into Best Buy and buying a game or application and getting a physical copy of the software could well be numbered.
You say that like it was a bad thing.
The problem with your assertion tis this; what were you getting with the physical copy that was any different than you get via an online App Store like Steam?
I mean, almost any game that is in a store is ALREADY laden with protection. And frankly that protection is often much more odious than what you get via Steam.
The thing I am sad to lose is resale ability (really the ability to lend a game to a friend), but that lives on in consoles more strongly than in the PC world, and that model is even more locked down than the PC... so I don't see any DIFFERENT danger than what we have already in that regard.
However I am annoyed at losing resale value, the features Steam grants are worth it to consider games as very expensive rentals instead of purchases.
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Windows will never be locked down like iOS because Microsoft cares about business customers who want to run a variety of off-the-shelf and proprietary apps. If tablets ever become mainstream in business they will be running Android or Windows 7 because the ability to load any code you please is vital in that setting, unless you use it as a glorified web browser.
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Yes, of course there will always be jailbreaking. But locking down both the hardware and software is pretty effective for mainstream users. I mean, how many people really have jailbroken PS3's and 360's that they use for pirated games? Sure, they're out there. But not many of them. It's certainly not like back the day, when almost NO ONE I knew actually *paid* for a PC game.
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Apple already has an App Store for their laptops/desktops. Apple could easily make their next OS ONLY install software from the app store. And the sick thing, is that the apple fan-boys and iReligious nutters will not only accept it, but PRAISE IT!
Re:Sadly, I think Apple might win on this one (Score:4, Insightful)
Ideally, in a perfectly utopian world, you wouldn't need backups. You purchase the music, software, movie, or whatever one time, and it goes into your account somewhere on a secure server. Forever afterward, you can access the content you paid for. The move wouldn't even have to be stored on that server, only your "token" that licenses you to use the content.
Part of my rationale for downloading music "illegally", is that I've paid for that music, several times over in some cases. It's not MY FAULT that the media has worn out. I paid for music, not vinyl, not tape, not even some optical format. Pay once, listen forever should be a standard in the entertainment and sofware world.
Old news for the rest of us (Score:3)
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How many times has your mom needed to mount ISO images? This is purely a developer feature.
Re:Old news for the rest of us (Score:5, Funny)
In Soviet Russia ISO images mount your.... never mind.
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It doesn't matter if it's a "purely developer feature".
This sort of idea is old news with Linux. It's old news for Unix in general where everything is a file anyways.
Also, this is the sort of thing that Apple uses to install software with.
So the idea that it's irrelevant to granny is just clueless anti-intellectual nonsense.
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So your take on it then is that Windows is ONLY for moms?
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Yes, what's your point? The fact that this feature should have been implemented before now isn't a reason to not be happy that it's finally being implemented.
It's such a simple feature, and such a useful feature it having not been implemented before is news.
Seriously what do windows users do if that want to read an .iso ? Burn it to a disk every time ? There has to be something that mounts or unpacks .iso files on windows already.
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Most windows users are completely confounded by the concept of an .iso. If you ask most windows users to burn an iso for you, they will almost certainly burn it as a file not an image.
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I use imDisk but pirate use deamon-tools
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Of course there have been ways since Win98, but having it built-in is new. Windows 7 added burning ISOs natively. Windows 8 adds mounting natively. Meaning you don't have to buy third party software.
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First, the plural of box is boxes, boxen is not a word. Second, you have been able to mount isos using "mount -o loop blah.iso" using root privileges in a console for ages. No Linux desktop has, afaik, made it as easy as just double clicking the file.
It should be easy enough to let users mount .iso's under linux. Distros likely do this already.
Having said that I normally do it as root.
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First, the plural of box is boxes, boxen is not a word.
If you had a sense of humor, you'd understand where "boxen" came from [youtube.com].
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You can use "fuseiso" to mount not just ISO-9660 images but also proprietary formats like NRG (Nero) and CCD (CloneCD) without root priviliges.
There's already an existing GUI for another program: "CDemu", an actual CD drive emulator.
http://www.my-guides.net/en/images/stories/virtual-dvd-linux/gcdemu-2.png [my-guides.net]
http://cdemu.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]
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Nautilus has been doing just that for a while...
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Seriously. People always say that Windows is easy, or intuitive, or user friendly or whatever. This kind of thing shows just how wrong that is. Completely obvious features that other operating systems have had for years are just now being added to Windows. e.g. Windows 7 still doesn't ship with virtual desktops for some reason.
Re:Old news for the rest of us (Score:5, Informative)
Heck, OSX has been able to Create ISOs from Disks, and mount them natively for at least the last 6-7 years (not sure if this feature was included in 10.0).
Its an incredibly useful feature in troubleshooting, in a Remote VM environment, or for bringing along a DVD full of (legal) 'old school' games to play (on a convenient USB drive instead of as lots of disks).
Its nice to see Windows catching up with the rest of the world.
This is new.. really? (Score:3, Insightful)
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Yes, it's good to see that they've thrown in a feature available on pretty much every desktop Linux distro for ten years.
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>>Yes, it's good to see that they've thrown in a feature available on pretty much every desktop Linux distro for ten years.
Anybody who trades ISOs on Windows can mount ISOs on Windows. It takes all of 30 seconds to download and install.
To me, this is kind of like when they built in .zip support for Windows so you didn't have to mess around with WinZip (you have been running your evaluation copy for 1219489 days!).
Also, I think Microsoft actually used to have a tool that did this. So it's not really ne
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Actually, Microsoft had their own ISO-mount software for quite some time (10 years or so), so you didn't even need third party software until recently.
It's just that it wasn't installed as standard, you needed to go to Microsofts website and download it yourself.
Unfortunately, it apparently violated GPL so MS had to take it down a while ago.
Re:This is new.. really? (Score:5, Insightful)
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If you count 3rd party software as anything beyond the bare OS, then Linux cannot boot ...and there is no such thing in Windows ...
If you count it as the bare system as installed from CD/DVD (A fairer comparison) then Linux can do many more things than windows, it depends on the Distro ...but some have ISO mounting built into the file manager
I you count what you can install from the system without paying extra (i.e. Windows Update, Package Manager) then Linux wins hands down ...
This is simply another case
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That's just bullshit. A Linux distro is the party that provides the software to you. It's not "third party software". You report bugs to the distribution. You get updates from the distribution. The distribution does the stabilization and integration work to make everything work smoothly with all the other packages in the system. Granted, most of the packages have upstreams, but that doesn't make it "third party" software. The distribution is the gatekeeper. They make all the decisions on what the users get
ISO mounting? (Score:3, Interesting)
Are they talking about
/media/iso -t iso9660 -o ro,loop=/dev/loop0
mount FILE.ISO
or is this something more advanced? If not, how is this news?
And if optical media would be obsolete, why would one want to continue using ISO files?
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And if optical media would be obsolete, why would one want to continue using ISO files?
Well, not all BIOSes are smart enough to be able to boot flash drives, so we still need some older-school tools to carry around Linux installers.
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Because optical media is not obsolete.
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Please post a link to a recording of a phone call where you talk your grandmother or parents through that command you just described, on their computer. Maybe after you go through that, you'll understand :)
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Why would you walk your grandmother or parents through a command over the phone when you could just ssh in and type it yourself?
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As other posters mentioned, it's news because Windows (finally!) would do it out-of-the-box, but because you don't have to remember nerd syntax or jump through any technical hoops to do it.
And I don't think there's a huge parallel between the ability to run an "obscure" CLI command versus cross-the-UI intergration ("obscure" in the sense that 90+% of users will never, ever learn it, and it's not their fault). If you knew what you were doing you could always MAKE Windows handle disk images like ISOs, but si
Compressed Folders (Score:2)
Basically because sometimes it's nice to be able to disseminate files in a read-only container with built-in checksumming support to detect corruption.
Windows has supported PKZIP-compatible "Compressed Folders" since at least Windows XP. And if ISO 9660 file system images are so "read-only", then how does packet writing work on an actual CD? The only true read-only container is a digitally signed one.
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And if ISO 9660 file system images are so "read-only", then how does packet writing work on an actual CD?
Packet writing uses UDF, not ISO 9660. UDF was designed to allow incremental updates, ISO 9660 is read-only - if you want to append to an ISO 9660 filesystem then you need to create a multi-session disk which stores multiple ISO 9660 filesystems internally and looks through each one in order (newest to oldest) to find files.
Niiiice (Score:2)
PowerISO is usually one of the first things I install after a fresh installation of Windows. I'm glad that's one less piece of software I'll need to worry about.
On a related note, how long will it be before anti-piracy groups accuse Microsoft of facilitating piracy with ISO support???
Re: (Score:2)
It really couldn't do this before? (Score:3)
I know on the Mac you can create, manipulate, and use all sorts of images without any add ons.
It's about time (Score:3)
Once again, following Apple's footsteps (Score:4, Interesting)
You know, I have to give Apple all these props (yes, my life is filled with iThings, but still), but once again they set the standard. Macs have been mounting ISO images and DMG files for the last decade - I was really surprised when Vista dropped without this basic native ability and even more so when it didn't make the cut for Windows 7. Sure, most PCs still ship with optical drives but it's been more convenient for years now to ship image files than .EXE installers or zip files in most cases. You'd think that Windows would have gained this ability before now.
As said earlier in this thread, the App Store model now will begin to take over for most packaged software and for Windows as well. Linux users have downloaded from repositories for the better part of 20 years (ever since the RPM). Mac users have downloaded DMG installers forever, and now have an App Store. Retail software distribution is going down the toilet.
The only wildcard is bandwidth capping - the carriers all want it, none of the users and none of the content providers want it. More and more things are going digital. Something's got to give, and within the next year or so we'll know which it is.
FFS, Classic Mac OS could mount... (Score:2)
... 3.5" floppy images - that's how old this idea is.
Re:Once again, following Apple's footsteps (Score:4, Informative)
it's been more convenient for years now to ship image files than .EXE installers or zip files in most cases.
How exactly is an ISO 9660 file system image (.iso) more convenient than a Microsoft Installer package (.msi)?
Retail software distribution is going down the toilet.
Not entirely yet, but it will once wired broadband reaches more rural areas or once wireless broadband providers drop their single digit GB/mo caps. Until then, it'll take upwards of five months to download a full-size BD movie or PLAYSTATION 3 game over satellite or cellular Internet.
Once again, following Linux's footsteps (Score:5, Insightful)
You know, I have to give Linux all these props, but once again they set the standard only to have Apple copy them and claim innovation. Linux boxes have been mounting ISO images and other image files for well over a decade now.
Re: (Score:3)
On the other hand, it was a crapshoot until well past 2005 whether any given Linux distro would properly automount a FAT32-formatted USB stick.
Mounting as simple as clicking a file (Score:2)
which has also been moved to the dumb fuck ribbon
Matryoshka Software (Score:5, Funny)
and in a year or two, it wouldn't be surprising if all software is made available as an ISO on a USB drive
Why stop there? I plan on shipping my software by printing the ones and zeroes, faxing it to myself, scanning it in as a JPEG, and pasting that into a Word Document. Only once that's done I'll tarball the Word doc, encode it on an ISO filesystem, and finally write it to a FAT32 USB stick.
But sometimes you need a real drive (Score:2)
For Win8 - Virtual CloneDrive (Score:2)
ISO on USB? (Score:2)
wouldn't be surprising if all software is made available as an ISO on a USB drive which can be read by tablet and PC alike
Why not just put the files on the USB drive? :-|
(I appreciate that this line could have been a joke, but I can imagine people actually doing it...)
Will it go both ways? (Score:3)
Vendor lock-in (Score:3)
Wasn't it stuff like this that got the anti-M$ crowd frothing about vendor lock-in and anti-competitive practices? Wasn't having to choose from multiple third-party sources for basic functionality once considered an advantage of Linux? How times have changed...
Fedora can do this already (Score:3)
This is going to be a feature in Fedora 16 [fedoraproject.org] (it already works in earlier versions of Fedora, we're just polishing it). More screenshots [redhat.com].
You can also mount and modify virtual machines securely (including Windows VMs and VHDs), using libguestfs [libguestfs.org] and guestmount [libguestfs.org].
Rich.
ISO mounting was a WinXP power toy (Score:3)
Those with short memories might forget that "Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel" was a free PowerToy that Microsoft released for WinXP. It got retired, and now a decade after its initial release, it's getting included into Win8. This is progress?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_CD-ROM_Control_Panel [wikipedia.org]
ISO 9660 + Joliet (Score:2)
Re: Microsoft. Jack of all trades. Master of none (Score:4, Insightful)
"Masterful"? That'd be like Ford waiting till 2012 to add a reverse gear to their transmissions? I don't think "masterful" is the word I'd pick. "slow cluestick" maybe.