Editing Cooperative Linux (section)

== Overview ==
[[File:Ubuntu on Windows - running Synaptic and nautilus.png|thumb|left|[[Synaptic Package Manager|Synaptic]] and [[Nautilus (file manager)|nautilus]] running on Windows]]
The term "cooperative" is used to describe two entities working in parallel. In effect Cooperative Linux turns the two different operating system kernels into two big [[coroutine]]s. Each kernel has its own complete CPU context and address space, and each kernel decides when to give control back to its partner.

However, while both kernels theoretically have full access to the real hardware, modern PC hardware is not designed to be controlled by two different operating systems at the same time. Therefore, the host kernel is left in control of the real hardware and the guest kernel contains special drivers that communicate with the host and provide various important devices to the guest OS. The host can be any OS kernel that exports basic primitives that allow the Cooperative Linux portable driver to run in CPL0 mode [[Ring (computer security)|(ring 0)]] and allocate memory.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.colinux.org/ |title=coLinux main page |access-date=2004-04-13 |archive-date=2015-12-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151204234737/http://www.colinux.org/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>