A frugal install, as characterized by most Linux distros that use it, is a technique that copies the CDROM boot files as is, directly to a hard drive. The distro can then boot from these files and operate as if it had booted from the CDROM. This lets the user bypass the sometimes lengthly and messy full install procedure. Not all distributions are set up to do such a thing. But for those that are, they need only a handful of files to be copied to the hard drive, making for a very simple and fast install. A frugal install is similar to running a live cd or live usb, except that it is running from a hard drive. Advantages of frugal: - Space is saved (installation to hard drive typically is 4 times the size of the iso, whereas with frugal it is the size of the iso). - Frugal from hard drive is faster than live usb and live cd. - Great for testing (once set up). Since the alphaOS install is typically just 3 - 5 files in a directory, it can be installed in conjunction with about any other operating system, without the need for an additional disc or separate partition. How to make a frugal alphaOS installation? For this example I assume, that you want to install alphaOS on partition sda6: - First mount that partition and CD, i.e. click on their icons in SpaceFM file manager. - In partition sda6 make directory called alphaos, and copy 4 files: alpha.sfs, extra.sfs, initrd.gz and vmlinuz from CD to that folder. - Start Grub4Dos bootloader config from the menu. - Select you disk, then in options tick search only in this device and press OK. Created menu.lst will have these entries: title alphaos (sda6/alphaos) find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /alphaos/initrd.gz kernel /alphaos/vmlinuz psubdir=alphaos pmedia=atahd pfix=fsck initrd /alphaos/initrd.gz title alphaos RAM mode (sda6/alphaos) find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /alphaos/initrd.gz kernel /alphaos/vmlinuz psubdir=alphaos pmedia=atahd pfix=ram,fsck initrd /alphaos/initrd.gz The same method can be applied for installation to a USB flash drive.