Pre-Sales Question

[pszilard]

Forgive my newbie question. (1st ever here).

I am just so hissed off Windows registry and other application interactions going wrong that I am looking "outside the square" for a solution. I like Ubuntu, but I have too much invested in Windows based s/w, like Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Premier, etc. so I am wondering if I was to run a separate Win-XP under VMware Workstation with host OS of Ubuntu for each major group of apps, will I get better resilience? The idea is to have Win-XP with Photoshop and another Win-XP with MS Office and so on.

i.e. I would have a virtual windoze for each of these environments;

\- Web Dev

\- Photo editing

\- Networks

\- Audio editing

\- etc.

My proposed h/w is an AMD dual core 64 bit cpu with 2GB ram and 800 GB HDD space using a dual head Asus made nVidia video card. The mobo is Asus, too.

Is this a good idea, or am I barking up the wrong tree?

\- sorry if this is too basic a question for all you super techies -

Thanks,

paul

[wila]

Hi Paul,

Yes you can do this with Vmware. It's not a problem to run windows XP on a ubuntu host.

It works fine for development.

One sidenote... the graphics.. you can't use directx in vmware. There appears to be a "experimental" switch to turn it on, but i have no experience with it, so cannot comment on it really.

In the same area, dual screen support is a new feature from vmware ws. version 6 so you maybe better install the beta on your ubuntu station.

It should work fine.

Enjoy your vmware experiments !

[KevinG · Accepted solution]

I would recommend that you download the 30 day eval or Workstation 5.5.3 or try the VMware Workstation 6 Beta to see if the virtual machine can meet your graphics needs before you purchase anything.

[pszilard]

Thanks. Can I ask some more questions?

Is my h/w suitable?

Is Ubuntu a recommended host OS?

Should I use 64 bit Ubuntu to be able to run XP64 - and is it worth the effort?

Will the guest XP be able to access both screens of a duel head video?

Any other limitations?

How can I duplicate an installed Guest system? Like create an XP install, then duplicate it n times and then in stall different apps into each of the copies. Is that a possibility?

Thanks again,

paul

[pszilard]

Naturally the trey-before-u-buy is in the plan but it is a major investment of time & effort. Hence the preliminary investigation...

-paul

[KevinG]

Is my h/w suitable?

Most AMD 64 bit chips in the last year meet the requirements to run 64 guests. There is a standalone processor checker to verify

Is Ubuntu a recommended host OS?

Ubuntu should be fine

>Should I use 64 bit Ubuntu to be able to run XP64 - and is it worth the effort?

The host OS can be 32 bit or 64 bit and still be able to run 64 bit guests.

Will the guest XP be able to access both screens of a duel head video?

For full screen across two monitors, you will need WS 6 that is currently in beta

Any other limitations?

How can I duplicate an installed Guest system? Like create an XP install, then duplicate it n times and then in stall different apps into each of the copies. Is that a possibility?

Create one virtual machine with the Windows XP and base applications. Copy the complete contents of this folder to other locations to run other copies. May need to run Sysprep.

Thanks again,

paulThanks. Can I ask some more questions?

[oreeh]

will I get better resilience?

definitely yes!

I've used Windows 2000 (WS & SRV), XP and W2K3 Srv. in a VM since Workstation 3 (test and dev).

These where the only Windows installations I saw in my whole IT career (and that has been a while) that never crashed / BSODed.

And I'll revert back to this scheme as soon as possible.

Of course ESX on my laptop would be better

[pszilard]

License questions:

I am a sole user, working from home, but with multi PCs (1 Linux, rest Windows) and a laptop.

1) If I purchase a VMW workstation license can I install it on more than one PC, if I am the only user?

2) If it can only be used on one PC, can I first install on a test PC and then later if all goes well, transfer the license to my big "production" PC?

3) Is there a free version of VMWare - other than the 30 day trial?

4) If I was to buy a current v5.5 will I get a free upgrade to v6 which is in Beta, or should i wait for v6 release instead?

Thnx again,

[KevinG]

Should only be installed on one computer at a time.

2) If it can only be used on one PC, can I first

install on a test PC and then later if all goes well,

transfer the license to my big "production" PC?

Yes, you can uninstall it from one computer and install it on another.

3) Is there a free version of VMWare - other than the

30 day trial?

No free version of VMware Workstation. VMware Server and VMware Player are the only free products at this time.

4) If I was to buy a current v5.5 will I get a free

upgrade to v6 which is in Beta, or should i wait for

v6 release instead?

Details about upgrade options to Workstation 6 are not available at this time.

Thnx again,License questions:

I am a sole user, working from home, but with multi

PCs (1 Linux, rest Windows) and a laptop.

1) If I purchase a VMW workstation license can I

install it on more than one PC, if I am the only

user?

[pszilard]

Apologies for needing clarification, but after reading the FAQ on the free VMWare Server, I am still unclear what features would I be missing out on compared to VMWare Workstation.

At the "Dummy" level;

1) can I install VMW server on a powerful laptop and run virtual OS's?

2) can VMW server (on a big PC) allow true virtual OS's?

3) in simple terms what am I sacrificing using VMW server versus Workstation?

Thnx.

[KevinG]

VMware Server does not having multiple snapshots and the teaming feature of VMware Workstation 5.x

At the "Dummy" level;

1) can I install VMW server on a powerful laptop and

run virtual OS's?

Depends on the CPU and memory, but yes it could

2) can VMW server (on a big PC) allow true virtual

OS's?

No sure I understand this question, since Workstation, VMware Server and VMware Player all run virtual machines

3) in simple terms what am I sacrificing using VMW

server versus Workstation?

VMware Server does not having multiple snapshots and the teaming feature of VMware Workstation 5.x. Many more new features are being added to WS 6 that is in beta now. More info about WS 6 can be found here and in the release notes

http://www.vmware.com/products/beta/ws//

Thnx.Apologies for needing clarification, but after

reading the FAQ on the free VMWare Server, I am still

unclear what features would I be missing out on

compared to VMWare Workstation.

[pszilard]

I am trialling Workstation 5.5 now.