[CLUE-Tech] VMWare

[Mike Staver]

Oh yeah, I've got plenty of time spent messing with this software
package, under different operating systems.  I tried running it in
windows 2000 having a virtual linux system, and running it under KDE on
Suse 7.1 with a virtual windows 2000 system.  In my opinion, if you
don't have *atleast* 700 or so megs of ram, you start swapping big
time.  I did this all on my laptop with 320 megs of ram, and it worked
both ways.  However, if you plan on running a linux box with windows
2000 as a virtual OS, a few things you need to know first:

1) Windows 2000 uses what's called a "hardware abstraction layer", which
is some fancy term for what they use to determine what your hardware
is.  I found out the hard way, that if you already have your disk
partitioned up with linux on one, and windows on the other, you will
still be required to REINSTALL windows 2k inside the virtual machine
running on linux.  

2) Every time you boot up windows normally (outside the virtual
machine), windows tries to "find" your new hardware, like USB and stuff
if I remember correctly.  

This actually worked a lot smoother for me when I installed linux inside
a virtual machine - it wasn't picky, and didn't care if I booted up
inside the virtual machine or not.  Yeah, some startup services would
fail inside the virtual machine, but nothing that made me answer a bunch
of M$ pop up windows about new hardware :)  

All in all, I'd say it's a pretty sweet trick, but it will be a little
sluggish if you don't have a fast processor and lots of ram.  

"Ostdiek, Gerry" wrote:
> 
> My company is doing a trial of VMWare and picqued my interest from a Linux
> perspective.
> I was wondering if anybody has any experience with the product under Linux
> before I drop $140 on it.
> http://www.academicsuperstore.com/market/marketlist.html?qk_srch=vmware&sour
> cecode=lcg&promocode=vmware
> It has the ability to create virtual machines from a Windoze box to run
> Linux, or other MS products,
> or to run a Linux (SUSE, RedHAt, Turbolinux) box and to have a Virtual
> Machine running other LINUX versions or NT, 2000, and other MS products.
> >From the demo I have seen it seems promising, but I have only seen the
> Windows to Windows switch.
> Any experience would be helpful.
> Does anybody have a copy they are not using and want to sell?
> 
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-- 

                                -Mike Staver
                                 staver at fimble.com
                                 mstaver at globaltaxnetwork.com
                                 http://www.fimble.com/staver