Hi All,
I am about to setup a machine with VMWare GSX for testing. This apparently
allows booting into multiple operations systems simultaneously, without
having to rely on any particular one as the host OS.
Just wondering if anyone else has any experience of Machine Virtualization
software and whether there are any other better packages out there.
Nick
I have been using Parallels with several Mac OS X platforms, and have
decided to give VMWare a try. I believe Ed migrated to VMWare Mac from
Parallels, not certain right now, but seems to me he did. I tested VMWare
for Linux and had excellent results, First Time Go and no strange setup or
conf issues. It just worked, no fuss, no muss. VirtualBox from Sun works
well under Linux also, and is free, but I did have a few setup and config
issues to deal with. Once done it was fine. I have used M$ Virtual PC
under Windows, and for other M$ OS platforms it works well. It used to work
with Linspire Linux as a guest OS until a Service Pack, and later a newer
release, took care of that little "destabilizing" problem for M$. But for a
free solution where I need to test my apps under different flavors of
Windows it has worked out great.
But, to your point, I do not know if there is anything better than VMWare
unto itself. I do know that whenever I have tested VMWare out I have been
pleased. But in my world if I can get an adequate VM solution for free (M$
Virtual PC and Sun VirtualBox), I will use it. But if I were to have to
plunk down a few bucks and bet on the best bang for the bucks, I would be
inclined to use VMWare. For Mac Host OS I have found a few too many goofy
issues with Parallels, and seen a lot of End User rating where folks rave
about VMWare after having used Parallels first.
My 5 cents...
Gil
> -----Original Message-----
> From: profoxtech-bounces@leafe.com
> [mailto:profoxtech-bounces@leafe.com]On Behalf Of Nick Causton
> Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2008 8:38 AM
> To: profoxtech@leafe.com
> Subject: [NF] VMWare of other Virtualization software
>
>
> Hi All,
>
> I am about to setup a machine with VMWare GSX for testing. This
> apparently
> allows booting into multiple operations systems simultaneously, without
> having to rely on any particular one as the host OS.
>
> Just wondering if anyone else has any experience of Machine Virtualization
> software and whether there are any other better packages out there.
>
> Nick
>
>
>
[excessive quoting removed by server]
Author: David Smith
Posted: 2008-11-04 09:19:50 Link
I've had great luck with Sun VirtualBox under Linux. Runs XP and W2K
flawlessly. It's free too :)
Thanks,
Dave
David Smith
Systems Administrator
Doan Family of Dealerships
(585) 352-6600 ext.1730
dsmith@doandelivers.com
www.upstatedigitools.com
-----Original Message-----
From: profoxtech-bounces@leafe.com [mailto:profoxtech-bounces@leafe.com] On
Behalf Of Gil Hale
Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2008 9:16 AM
To: profoxtech@leafe.com
Subject: RE: [NF] VMWare of other Virtualization software
I have been using Parallels with several Mac OS X platforms, and have
decided to give VMWare a try. I believe Ed migrated to VMWare Mac from
Parallels, not certain right now, but seems to me he did. I tested VMWare
for Linux and had excellent results, First Time Go and no strange setup or
conf issues. It just worked, no fuss, no muss. VirtualBox from Sun works
well under Linux also, and is free, but I did have a few setup and config
issues to deal with. Once done it was fine. I have used M$ Virtual PC
under Windows, and for other M$ OS platforms it works well. It used to work
with Linspire Linux as a guest OS until a Service Pack, and later a newer
release, took care of that little "destabilizing" problem for M$. But for a
free solution where I need to test my apps under different flavors of
Windows it has worked out great.
But, to your point, I do not know if there is anything better than VMWare
unto itself. I do know that whenever I have tested VMWare out I have been
pleased. But in my world if I can get an adequate VM solution for free (M$
Virtual PC and Sun VirtualBox), I will use it. But if I were to have to
plunk down a few bucks and bet on the best bang for the bucks, I would be
inclined to use VMWare. For Mac Host OS I have found a few too many goofy
issues with Parallels, and seen a lot of End User rating where folks rave
about VMWare after having used Parallels first.
My 5 cents...
Gil
> -----Original Message-----
> From: profoxtech-bounces@leafe.com
> [mailto:profoxtech-bounces@leafe.com]On Behalf Of Nick Causton
> Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2008 8:38 AM
> To: profoxtech@leafe.com
> Subject: [NF] VMWare of other Virtualization software
>
>
> Hi All,
>
> I am about to setup a machine with VMWare GSX for testing. This
> apparently allows booting into multiple operations systems
> simultaneously, without having to rely on any particular one as the
> host OS.
>
> Just wondering if anyone else has any experience of Machine
> Virtualization software and whether there are any other better packages
out there.
>
> Nick
>
>
>
[excessive quoting removed by server]
On Tue, Nov 4, 2008 at 2:19 PM, David Smith <dsmith@doandelivers.com> wrote:
> I've had great luck with Sun VirtualBox under Linux. Runs XP and W2K
> flawlessly. It's free too :)
Same here. I was using it to run a small Linux distro for testing
under XP. Normally I use VirtualPC but I couldn't get this to run
Linux properly.
I use VirtualPC for testing different languages. Our hotel app
supports English, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, German, French, Russian,
Estonian, Lithuanian and Thai. This means I don't have to mess with
my regional settings (re-boot required) on my 'real' PC.
--
Paul
Thanks for the info chaps.
I have just tested out VMWare GSX but it does not allow stand alone booting;
it requires an operating system to host it before it can do anything. I was
hoping to find something which doesn't rely on any particular OS.
In my case I am likely to be running various different versions of Windows.
Does the Sun Virtual Box which you have mentioned allow booting to a virtual
OS without the requirement to have a host OS?
Thanks,
Nick
> -----Original Message-----
> From: profox-bounces@leafe.com [mailto:profox-bounces@leafe.com] On Behalf
> Of Paul Hill
> Sent: 04 November 2008 19:56
> To: ProFox Email List
> Subject: Re: [NF] VMWare of other Virtualization software
>
> On Tue, Nov 4, 2008 at 2:19 PM, David Smith <dsmith@doandelivers.com>
> wrote:
> > I've had great luck with Sun VirtualBox under Linux. Runs XP and W2K
> > flawlessly. It's free too :)
>
> Same here. I was using it to run a small Linux distro for testing
> under XP. Normally I use VirtualPC but I couldn't get this to run
> Linux properly.
>
> I use VirtualPC for testing different languages. Our hotel app
> supports English, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, German, French, Russian,
> Estonian, Lithuanian and Thai. This means I don't have to mess with
> my regional settings (re-boot required) on my 'real' PC.
>
> --
> Paul
>
>
[excessive quoting removed by server]
Author: Kristyne McDaniel
Posted: 2008-11-09 18:16:42 Link
Nick,
> I have just tested out VMWare GSX but it does not allow
> stand alone booting; it requires an operating system to
> host it before it can do anything. I was hoping to find
> something which doesn't rely on any particular OS.
Have you thought about using a hardware solution? I have one machine that
has its boot drive in a drawer mechanism. That allows me to put a boot drive
in that has a different OS on it whenever I need to swap it for testing.
The drawer mechanism is inexpensive, and small hard drives that can host any
number of OS install sets are really cheap now.
Kristyne McDaniel
http://www.kristynemcdaniel.com/blog
http://www.emryldadvantage.com/
Whether you think you can, or you think you can't.... you are right.
-- Henry Ford
Author: Andrew Stirling
Posted: 2008-11-09 20:31:51 Link
Nick
The Sun Virtual Box requires a host OS. My understanding is that ALL
virtual OS require a host.
What's the problem with booting into linux then run your virtual OS from
there?
My 2 Meg machine running XP will run a Sun Virtual Box XP system at a
good speed in order do tests ( it is slow getting info from the 'shared
folder').
If I run 2 Virtual machines at once then it slows down considerably.
re Kristyne's idea, you could do this via USB memory sticks if your
motherboard supports booting from same.
Andrew Stirling
01250 874580
HMRC Accredited UK payroll program
NickC wrote:
> Thanks for the info chaps.
>
> I have just tested out VMWare GSX but it does not allow stand alone booting;
> it requires an operating system to host it before it can do anything. I was
> hoping to find something which doesn't rely on any particular OS.
>
> In my case I am likely to be running various different versions of Windows.
>
> Does the Sun Virtual Box which you have mentioned allow booting to a virtual
> OS without the requirement to have a host OS?
>
> Thanks,
> Nick
>
>
Author: Jeff Johnson
Posted: 2008-11-10 08:37:44 Link
I use this technique on a couple of computers and my goal is to do the
same thing with my main development computer - I have just not had
enough time. I have two XP virtual boxes on my Ubuntu machines. One
for Windows apps like Quickbooks and VFP and one for testing only. I do
installs and test them and then revert back to a "naked" machine for the
next test.
Jeff
Jeff Johnson
jeff@san-dc.com
SanDC, Inc.
623-582-0323
Fax 623-869-0675
Phoenix Python User Group - sunpiggies@googlegroups.com
Andrew Stirling wrote:
> Nick
>
> The Sun Virtual Box requires a host OS. My understanding is that ALL
> virtual OS require a host.
> What's the problem with booting into linux then run your virtual OS from
> there?
> My 2 Meg machine running XP will run a Sun Virtual Box XP system at a
> good speed in order do tests ( it is slow getting info from the 'shared
> folder').
> If I run 2 Virtual machines at once then it slows down considerably.
>
> re Kristyne's idea, you could do this via USB memory sticks if your
> motherboard supports booting from same.
>
> Andrew Stirling
> 01250 874580
> HMRC Accredited UK payroll program
>
>
> NickC wrote:
>> Thanks for the info chaps.
>>
>> I have just tested out VMWare GSX but it does not allow stand alone booting;
>> it requires an operating system to host it before it can do anything. I was
>> hoping to find something which doesn't rely on any particular OS.
>>
>> In my case I am likely to be running various different versions of Windows.
>>
>> Does the Sun Virtual Box which you have mentioned allow booting to a virtual
>> OS without the requirement to have a host OS?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Nick
>>
>>
>
>
>
[excessive quoting removed by server]
Hi Kristyne, thanks for your thoughts on this.
That is almost how I do things at the moment. I have various partitions
each with a different Operating System on, then just set as active the one I
want to boot into.
I was hoping to find a better way so that I could switch OSs live, without
having to reboot each time. Also it would be good for software testing,
could run both the server and workstation at the same time on the same
machine.
Nick
> -----Original Message-----
> From: profox-bounces@leafe.com [mailto:profox-bounces@leafe.com] On Behalf
> Of Kristyne McDaniel
> Sent: 09 November 2008 23:17
> To: 'ProFox Email List'
> Subject: RE: [NF] VMWare of other Virtualization software
>
> Nick,
>
> > I have just tested out VMWare GSX but it does not allow
> > stand alone booting; it requires an operating system to
> > host it before it can do anything. I was hoping to find
> > something which doesn't rely on any particular OS.
>
> Have you thought about using a hardware solution? I have one machine that
> has its boot drive in a drawer mechanism. That allows me to put a boot
> drive
> in that has a different OS on it whenever I need to swap it for testing.
>
> The drawer mechanism is inexpensive, and small hard drives that can host
> any
> number of OS install sets are really cheap now.
>
> Kristyne McDaniel
> http://www.kristynemcdaniel.com/blog
> http://www.emryldadvantage.com/
>
> Whether you think you can, or you think you can't.... you are right.
> -- Henry Ford
>
>
>
[excessive quoting removed by server]
Andrew / Jess, thank for the info.
> What's the problem with booting into linux then run your virtual OS from
> there?
Err.. don't know much about Linux, did have someone that did but he is
no-longer with us so I would have to learn how to do that myself.
So the idea would be:
1). Boot to Linux - which version would be best/smallest footprint?
2). Install Virtual Machine Server in Linux - which best, Sun VirtualBox or
VMWare Server?
3). Run Win2003 Server in virtual machine as main daily OS.
4). Also have the following available and running in other Virtual machines:
SBS2003
XP
Vista
Does that sound possible / sensible?
Nick
> -----Original Message-----
> From: profox-bounces@leafe.com [mailto:profox-bounces@leafe.com] On Behalf
> Of Jeff Johnson
> Sent: 10 November 2008 13:38
> To: profox@leafe.com
> Subject: Re: [NF] VMWare of other Virtualization software
>
> I use this technique on a couple of computers and my goal is to do the
> same thing with my main development computer - I have just not had
> enough time. I have two XP virtual boxes on my Ubuntu machines. One
> for Windows apps like Quickbooks and VFP and one for testing only. I do
> installs and test them and then revert back to a "naked" machine for the
> next test.
>
> Jeff
>
> Jeff Johnson
> jeff@san-dc.com
> SanDC, Inc.
> 623-582-0323
> Fax 623-869-0675
>
> Phoenix Python User Group - sunpiggies@googlegroups.com
>
> Andrew Stirling wrote:
> > Nick
> >
> > The Sun Virtual Box requires a host OS. My understanding is that ALL
> > virtual OS require a host.
> > What's the problem with booting into linux then run your virtual OS from
> > there?
> > My 2 Meg machine running XP will run a Sun Virtual Box XP system at a
> > good speed in order do tests ( it is slow getting info from the 'shared
> > folder').
> > If I run 2 Virtual machines at once then it slows down considerably.
> >
> > re Kristyne's idea, you could do this via USB memory sticks if your
> > motherboard supports booting from same.
> >
> > Andrew Stirling
> > 01250 874580
> > HMRC Accredited UK payroll program
> >
> >
> > NickC wrote:
> >> Thanks for the info chaps.
> >>
> >> I have just tested out VMWare GSX but it does not allow stand alone
> booting;
> >> it requires an operating system to host it before it can do anything.
> I was
> >> hoping to find something which doesn't rely on any particular OS.
> >>
> >> In my case I am likely to be running various different versions of
> Windows.
> >>
> >> Does the Sun Virtual Box which you have mentioned allow booting to a
> virtual
> >> OS without the requirement to have a host OS?
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >> Nick
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
[excessive quoting removed by server]