[lug] Virtual Machine?

[john starkey]

> Some time ago it was suggested to me that you could run a VM in Linux
> wherein you could run a Win O/S virtually.
> Does anyone have expericence with this?

I tried VMWare on a 333 AMD with 192 megs and it was slow.... really slow. Also very hard to work with *at times with very little resources available*. But it (the window Windows was in) locked up all the time so you had that genuine Windows feeling. :}

> If so, can you boot Windows from another partition on the same PC, from the
> Linux VM, or do you need to reinstall the Win O/S on the Linux partition
> using the VM?

VMWare will patch the kernel and make you reboot into it. At the lilo prompt you'll have a choice between kernels, VMware or not. You can use a seperate partition IIRC, or install into a virtual disk if you don't have a partition for Windows.

> Does anyone recommend a particular VM?

VMware was nice because F8 was full-screen Windows. It seemed like a nice way to run windoze if you have the resources available.

> Just trying to solve some integration problems and cut down on my
> reboots........

VMware will do that. As long as you are running the VMware kernel when you need to run Windows.

Note: this was 6-8 months ago so things may have changed considerably. I'm running a 900 MHz machine now with 512 megs and would probably try it again if needed.

John