[Tfug] virtual machines, was: Re: battery life, power management and windows vs linux

[Benjamin Krein]

t takahashi wrote:
> hmm, of all the many options, ignoring speed entirely, which ones are
> nicest in ways like these?
> 
> * minimal effort to get started with it to run a windows program?
> * "                                                      to run, say,
> ubuntu under debian?

All of the things being discussed in this thread are virtual machines
which means you'll need a full install of Windows within the virtual
machine.

> * open source?

kqemu & kvm are both open source (along with bochs).  So is Xen, but I
wasn't aware it was able to virtualize Windows at this point (granted, I
haven't looked recently).  VMware & Parallels also fit the bill, but are
not open sourced.

> * safe -- unlikely to have cross-machine malware or bugs?

Dunno, haven't heard a lot about any of that with any of the listed options.

> * allow cut/paste, pipe/socket, or disk transfer among machines?

I'm not sure about cut/paste or pipe/socket, but often Samba is utilized
to share between a virtualized Windows instance and the host machine's
drive.  Any other network protocol should work as well considering it's
like having another physical machine on your network.

> * have most flexibility e.g. re working with devices properly?

Again, I haven't worked extensively with devices within VMs.  I know
both VMware & Parallels are supposed to support USB, but not sure to
what extent.

> 
> pardon the probably partly ignorant questions.  i haven't found any
> place that answers these compactly.
> 

I've been using VMware Server lately for most of my needs.  It's free &
has a nice GUI interface for setting up & managing VMs.  I suppose
that's cheating though :)

I've set up Xen in the past and loved it on servers.  I can't attest to
it on a desktop.  I'm also not overly fond of Xen's requirement for a
customized kernel.

Now that I've upgraded to a 2.6.20 kernel, I'm really excited to try kvm
as I think it's a nice combination of OSS, speed & low-level
virtualization.  It's also easy to setup from what I've seen.
Unfortunately you need a processor that can handle it.  (/me <3 T60p)

Benjamin Krein
www.superk.org