One more vote for qemu but I doubt if there is any way with qemu and ubuntu.

I'm not really familiar with digital signatures.

Let's start with that, then.

A digital signature is used to "sign" "something" to prove that you are who you claim to be - so far, so good. The ones I know about are based on public/private-key cryptography, e.g. RSA. The public part of your key is public knowledge, and you keep the private key really close to your heart. For normal scenarios, you'd keep it in a keyfile encrypted with a symmetric cipher, and a Real Good(TM) passphrase.

I'm not going to dive into how signing is done, since "it depends", but the important part is that it requires your private key. Oh, and that signing can potentially be used for stuff like acknowledging a bank transfer, or signing over the rights of your house to somebody else.

With key escrowing, instead of keeping your encrypted keyfile on your harddisk, you trust a third party to keep the private key stored. Now, I do believe company behind NemID to have proper HSM storage, and I mostly believe their claims that the system is not backdoored. But I do know that they have the capability to wait for my next NemID login and snoop my passphrase, and would thus be able to get at my private key. This is not tinfoil-hat, it has been revealed in a government question about the security.

So... I'm not super-worried about a hacker penetrating the system and grabbing all the keys - but it would be possible to snoop on people (or do more nefarious things) given a court order (we're not quite at the level of .us anti-terroism laws in .dk yet, but getting there). But (if I remember correctly wrt. the company ownership), I guess the patriot act could be involved (that's slightly tinfoil-hat).

That said, I do believe key escrowing is better for the majority of people, and the solution does add 2-factor authentication by the use of single-use 6-digit codes on a keycard. It's a cheaper and more pragmatic solution than keyfrobs or the like, and while it's one of the best things about the system, it's ironically also one of the things people bitch most about, while completely ignoring the security repercussions of the system. Sheeple, *sigh*.

Judging by your usage, would it be correct to assume that it only protects the scenario where the java plugin has been compromised?

The Java plugin, or any number of other attack vectors, yes.

That is to say, the digital signature stored in escrow is still an exposed factor or does using Linux/using a VM serve as a form of anonymizer/2nd layer encryption against the system?

Well, the main thing to avoid is having the Java plugin in your day-to-day webbrowser. I try to get everybody I know to get rid of it, and use a second browser (or alternate firefox profile, whatever) for the NemID stuff.

The reasons for running it in linux is a bit of paranoia, and a "go fsck yourselves, NemID" attitude. First of all, should something slip through the browser (however extremely unlikely), there's more malware for Windows than for Linux (that's not to say that there aren't juicy exploits available for Linux, but they're the kind you don't see in widespread use. If you're hit by one, you should probably be worried). Also, there's the fact that the NemID Java applet contains native x86 code - I don't really want "random" native code running on my machine. "We need it for making a fingerprint of your system", yeah right. I don't expect to be the target of a police investigation anytime soon, but I sure as hell don't want anybody to have a wonderful trojan delivery backdoor mechanism on my machine. While it's unlikely that the private keys are going to get hacked out of NemID, wouldn't the machine serving the non-bootstrap .jar be a juicy target? I think so.

I installed Puppy Linux and it offers to reboot my system :/

well, i installed  "Puppy Linux 528.exe", which is supposed to be a linux installer in winxp

kalos, I really think you need to go with the virtual machine route.  That's the least invasive way to do what you want.

Well it depends on what only virtual machine way means. After all, he did go for an .exe over say an unburned Live CD iso first. (Not dumb but not something a beginner is recommended to do nor will a beginner accidentally be introduced to it first time they try Linux)

I don't know about VMWare but Virtualbox and Qemu from a person like me is vastly different despite being categorically considered the same.

Even now I still have problems optimizing Virtualbox and when I open it, my browser on my main OS slows down (highly invasive). Qemu is just click and run especially on Puppy.

Plus Virtualbox has streamlined mode which is also a different experience than a windowed OS.

There's also just finding Windows alternative for Linux specific apps which is much more likelier to happen.

Also there's Online Emulators like this for the technically minded: http://bellard.org/jslinux/

There could just easily be a fully functioning graphical online OS that no one has heard about.

Yes but since both Qemu and VBox don't need rebooting and are virtual machines, that's not the issue here.

The issue is on the topic title: "instant".

In my experiences with Qemu, especially with a lightweight newbie friendly distro like Puppy, it is as instant as it is like opening a web browser where as Virtualbox, esp. unoptimized/wrongly sliced together settings, is more like running a Java app.

Both are at heart going to give you operating systems without rebooting but one requires not only loading for waiting times, additional confusing settings, questions of whether to install guest additions or merge two desktop OS's aesthetic together and the other is simply...a click. I.E.: instant linux.

The differences are so distinct that yes, depending on the needs, Qemu can seem like a better way than Virtualbox provided you know the limitations of Qemu and QemuPuppy but only towards a less experienced person because most average Linux users are at an elite power user that things like how many RAM to allocate and how to backup and export virtual HDs would be 2nd hand to them.

Also I'd be careful with using the words fully. To my knowledge, I could never figure out how to set up the fully functioning drivers that allows Virtualbox to support better gaming. I read somewhere that guest additions have to be installed in safe mode but I could never figure out what it really means where as something like QemuPuppy, the option doesn't even pop out when I last tried it. It's literally like a portable app to it's most basic sense. The only confusion is how to put it to a certain boot device but anyone can click on it and open QemuPuppy. Even users who are totally ignorant of anything virtual machine related.

Oh there's no misunderstanding. It is I believe more of a question of experience. In fact I haven't fully experienced the experience myself.

Comprehension really all depends on whether one has experienced a Qemu of a lightweight distro versus an advanced/textbook VM such as Virtualbox. It is really as clear as realizing a portable app responds much faster and is "installed" much faster and conveniently than say an equivalent alternative software that is memory hogging.

The same can be said for fully. If one has experienced say trying to play a modern videogame on a guest Windows OS and have that game not play, the idea of a full virtual OS would be far different than merely the concept of a functioning OS.

It would be the same as if trying to tell a Windows user that Linux is a 100% functioning OS only to reveal to them that X windows software is not available on Linux. Most likely the distinction of functionality wouldn't be lost on them on the technical side but on the practical side, you wouldn't convince them that it is a fully functioning OS because they would not have the skills to build or access a particular feature which they have taken for granted in a fully functioning OS.

With things like a guest copy, it is especially of great importance to separate such distinction. At least, I think so. It is after all at the heart of what one expects from a copy. No one should be expected to be tricked into believing a ripped copy is a full copy and no one should be expected to believe that a 50% VM of an OS is in actuality a full 100% functioning VM. Even for Live CD copies this can be dangerous. There are Live CDs where because you can't test install the additional drivers without installing the actual OS on a HD would lead to screen flickering and it would be easy to mistake it as the full OS only on a CD and give up on it all together.

@40hz, thanks, I suspected as much. Was hoping to try it on something other than playing with larger installs and VMs.

VMWare and such are very slow

my solution would be to utilize live cd's, but without running them from a cd player, which makes them sluggish

is there a virtual cd player that can load a live cd?

Link to externally hosted screenshot of Portable Ubuntu Remix and Another screenshot.

Kalos should really consider running Portable Ubuntu. The screenshots hidden behind the links above show what it looks like to have Windows XP and Ubuntu running at the same time. Exactly what he wants. It doesn't require any messing about with Virtual Machines and it runs fine on a P4 3GHz, 2 GByte of RAM and a Sata2 harddisk. Ran such a setup for about six months without any problem on either (OS) side. Sold the PC afterwards after showing this to someone.


Then again, in my own personal opinion, virtual machines are the way to go, if you don't have spare hardware lying around.

You can update the included Ubuntu to a higher version. That worked also right out of the box. Granted, it takes time, but hey, it that is the only thing...