Running Linux As A Guest On Windows
Gnomie Robert Washam writes:
Chris,
I noticed a feed you had on YouTube about running Ubuntu on/under Windows, specifying VMWARE. I did not hear a mention of VirtualBox, so I figured you had hot heard about it. It’s very much worth a look since it’s 1) free, 2) from Oracle (well, Sun, but that’s Oracle), and 3) runs well. Did I mention it’s free?
Parallel Workstation is better than VMWARE workstation FOR THE PRICE, also. Parallels is much less money and I found it VERY fast. On a Pent-M 1.7GHz w/2GB of DRAM running XP Home, Word, Kea VT, and a few other apps I was still able to run Parallels with a guest of SuSE Linux and have 12 students in the class connect to that same laptop using Telnet!
There is, of course, Xen, too. But Xen requires a lot of work right now on the desktop (laptop) platforms to get Windows and Linux running. I’m a Xen Partner and they do not want to give out a free Xen Desktop client (and besides, their desktop is much different than VMWARE et. al.). They DO give out a free 64-bit server product, XenServer Standard. For a 32-bit product, it’s Xen.org, which has free downloads, but again, having to build a base Linux kernel to get a 32-bit server running just so you can virtualize a few workstation sessions is not for most to do!
Just my 10 cents (in binary).
- Professional Xen Virtualization
- Virtuozzo for Linux 3.0 Paves a Winning Path to Virtualization / Altiris SVS Untangles App Conflicts for Easy Deployment / Peter Coffee Finds Journey Short of Cairo Goal / Virtualization Lines Up Linux As Vendors Rally for Xen (eWeek, Volume 23, Number 14, April 3, 2006)
7 Comments
leftystrat
September 28th, 2009
at 6:44pm
Isn’t that kinda like building a fortress on top of a swamp?
Shannon VanWagner
September 28th, 2009
at 9:15pm
Go get Ubuntu GNU/Linux from ubuntu.com. Use infrarecorder to burn the .iso, then pop it in your cdrom and run it from within Windows – it will then present you with the menu to install. Install Ubuntu inside Windows, then you get the choice to boot to it upon restarting. Or you could just install Ubuntu GNU/Linux first, then install virtualbox-ose inside Ubuntu and run Windows from it.
Need help? Contact me.
Shannon VanWagner
humans enabled – that’s what technology is for.
bmw325ia
September 29th, 2009
at 8:17am
I love leftystrat’s comment!
Exedukator
September 29th, 2009
at 8:27am
Yes, leftystrat, it is. I do it the other way round – run Windows inside Linux using VirtualBox. Works a treat!
Primosoul
September 29th, 2009
at 9:50am
I have always wanted to try a virtual server of some sort, but I have always noticed that there are performance issues. It all depends what you need Linux for, maybe a casual user will benefit a lot from running Linux temporary using a virtual server. Thanks!
tenzwarth
September 29th, 2009
at 11:22am
When it sinks in, you can always build another one. Really attracts the lasses with huge… tracts of land.
Robert didn’t say he was doing all this for security/stability. Looks like it’s more for utility… having Linux available on demand without having a separate box.
YES a linux host with a windows VM is more stable, but if you want the most out of your hardware in general (although Linux is improving) or Windows specifically you’re going to want that as the host (otherwise components show up generically)
Giantkin
September 29th, 2009
at 12:58pm
I use vmware to run linux on my winxp sp3
I use the FREE vmware server edition… yes its hard to find, works great however.
good for testing various things, before going live with them.
I have tried virtuabox, as well as several others, before running into vmware server. (i like the appliance …market. for plugin use) and easy easy backup of the entire install, as well as a ‘live’ backup. (ie: snapshot)
gk