[svlug] so re we getting free vmware licenses on wednesday

[Aaron Lehmann]

On Mon, Oct 02, 2000 at 03:09:08PM -0700, Rick Moen wrote:
> begin Brian W. quotation:
> 
> > It just looked like u had a bitch of a time trying to get guest oses
> > to run. 
> 
> Those sorts of emulation environments are handy for laptop users with
> high-end CPUs and RAM to burn.  For other situations, I fail to see
> the point.   Put a $20 Tulip card in your overpowered Win32 box and
> install VNC Server (http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/winvnc.html).
> Assign it IP address 192.168.0.2.  Put a line in C:\WINDOWS\HOSTS,
> associating that address with hostname "windows" and a second one
> associating 192.168.0.1 with hostname "linux".  Start VNC Server.
> Remove the overpowered Win32 box's monitor.  (It can now run "headless".)

I disagree. My father was fortunate enough to have me set up a
Linux-based system for him which he uses exclusively. Eventually he
had to run a Win32 application to do some simple things. VMWare costs
more than dual-booting, but a lot less than you would have to pay me
to install Windows on a perfectly good Linux machine. I have heard
rumors that Windows' installer is not respectful to Linux partitions
and I really don't want to find out whether they are true or not. I
could not find out anyway becuase I do not have access to the source
code. I do not trust Windows. If I (hypothetically) had to run Windows,
I would be much more comfortable running it in a sandboxed
environment. This is the setup that I created for my father using
VMWare, and once windows was installed (It was a HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE
install I tell you. Not to mention the cost of a version of Windows
not "only for use for restoring the OS on your XXXX computer") it
worked very well. This doesn't even bring up the benefits of the
coexistance of multiple operating systems. Dual booting is a pain
in the ass.

You sugest purchasing another machine. Most current workstations
should be powerful enough to run VMWare at a usable speed (and if it
isn't then the next computer you want to buy is not a cheap, slow
computer). If you wanted to use the two operating systems at the same
time a lot, then one slow computer might not be able to handle it
well, but trust me - you don't want to use the two operating systems
anywhere near an equal amount of time. Decide on one native operating
system and use it except when you need to use the other. If you buy a
computer you end up with yet another obsolete piece of junk that will
be unused for most of its power-sucking time. If you buy VMWare (for
less) than you get to harnass the CPU in your computer to do what you
actually want it to do. Also, the guest OS will probably run faster on
your main computer under VMWare than it would on an old heap of crap.

I hate VMWare a lot, mostly becuase of its license. But these comments
are based on its practical aspects rather than the philosophical ones.
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