OpenEuphoria

Virtual machine software (was: Source changes)

• Posted by Juergen Luethje <j.lue at g?x.de> Jul 11, 2007
• 599 views

Gary Shingles wrote:

> Jules wrote:
> > 
> > > > using the wizards, pop in the CD, and 40 minutes later I had a fully
> > > > functioning
> > > > XP system running. Very impressive. 
> > > > 
> > > > <a href="http://www.virtualbox.org">http://www.virtualbox.org</a>
> > > 
> > > Already on my hard drive   I saw your other post and
> > > read up on it straight away.  I haven't tried anything yet though.
> > > 
> > > I predict that if you want to keep an XP setup handy you'll be looking at
> > > putting
> > > another 512Mb RAM in your laptop :)  I can't stand XP on only 256Mb, even
> > > on
> > > a 3.0GHz machine.
> > > 
> > > Gary
> > 
> > You're right. It's a little jerky with 256Mb, but quite usable. I gig would
> > be fine I think. (512Mb each for the host and guest OS).
> 
> A colleague recommended <a
> href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx">MS
> VirtualPC</a>, which I tried and am very impressed with.  I couldn't install
> MINIX3 on VirtualBox (it had disk errors) but Virtual PC (2007) handled it
> without
> a problem.  It's free now too.

Does Virtual PC 2007 support USB ports? I've tested Virtual PC 2004, which
does not do so. Virtual PC 2004 has some other disadvantages, compared to
VMware or VirtualBox. I don't know all details anymore, since I'm not
interested in Virtual PC anymore. On the German internet, there are pages
which compare several VM software products. I'm pretty sure that there are
such pages on English internet, too.

In my opinion, the biggest disadvantage of Virtual PC is the lack of support
for Linux as host OS. Currently I'm using VMware Server(*), with Win XP as
host OS. As guest operating systems I have Windoes 98 and Ubuntu 7.04.
Sooner or later, I'll probably use Linux as "real" operating system of my PC,
i.e. as host OS. Then I just have to install VMware server for Linux, and
can continue to use all my Virtual Machines. If I would use Virtual PC now,
my Virtual Machines would be lost after a switch to Linux.

Regards,
   Juergen

--------------------------------------------------
(*) Like VMware player, VMware server is also free. It has the advantage
    that it allows the user to create her/his own Virtual Machines. Don't
    be confused by the word "server" -- you can just use it like a normal
    local program.
    Unfortunately, it seems not to be possible to install VMware Player
    and VMware Server on the same machine. So people who already use
    VMware Player must uninstall this, before they can install VMware
    Server.