[Ham-Computers] RE: Virtual Machines in non-virtual computers

[Hsu, Aaron (NBC Universal)]

Jeff,

Welcome to the world of virtualization!  VMWare is great, isn't it?  Several years ago, we reduced our data center's physical "footprints" by virtualizing low utilization servers (consolidation) on a single box (usually 2 or 3 virtual servers per physical box).  VM sessions are also a great way to test software and/or settings.

If you're interested in "Windows on Windows" emulation, then Microsoft's VirtualPC is completely free and runs a bit faster than VMWare.  Microsoft's "Virtual Server" is also free.  However, VMWare is definitely the better product - more features and customizations plus USB support.  Downside is cost...it's not free <g>.

Enjoy yourself, but don't go overboard!  For example, don't try to run 4 virtual XP sessions on a 1GHz P3 CPU with 256MB RAM...you're just asking for trouble here (been there, done that)!

73,

  - Aaron, NN6O



-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, May 04, 2007 7:45 PM
Subject: [Ham-Computers] Virtual Machines in non-virtual computers

I'm having a blast here.

I discovered virtual machines/appliances via the free vmware player.  It installed with no grief on 3 of 4 computers (XP and linux).

I found a page with directions on how to do a virtual XP image, so now I have a Windows image to run under linux.

If you haven't played with this yet, dl vmplayer (it's free) and check out what it can do.  It is more or less a separate window in Windows or linux that runs a separate operating system.

I called in my boss, who is going virtually insane over virtualization, and showed him my 2 computers... linux was running under XP and XP was running under linux.  He was either most impressed or humoring me (either way is probably ok).

Practically speaking, you an run a different OS to test it out without having to muck up the hard drive installing it.  The image takes up precious little space so you haven't lost anything, but you have gained knowledge of a different OS.  You can audition different flavors of linux to see which you like better.

The other reason for vm is that you can use your dual-processor machines (or earlier) to run several things at once.

You can also get prebuilt images that do one job, like an Instant Firewall, spam blocker, and other assorted goodies.  Linux is free, vmware player is free, and they both run on Windows or linux.  Once you make an image, it will play on vmplayer under any OS.  [WARNING - the stock XP build image is about 1.2g]


Have fun!


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