ymmv, but here are two configurations I use:
VMware fusion on Mac -- but only to run cpu/fs/auth -- I use either drawterm or
ACME-sac to get into it. It is very snappy. Easily as snappy (for me) as my
standalone Plan 9 equivalent and I do basically all my work in this
environment. I do not run Venti on it, the plan was to use venti running on
the host, linux box, or on the actual plan 9 box to back up the vm, but I never
got around to setting it up.
Plan 9 running on kvm on Intel with a similar configuration (no graphics, just
cpu/fs/auth) and without venti.
I've also dabbled with looking at using underlying Linux or MacOSX file systems
to host files for the root of the Plan 9 system to make things even easier. As
it is my source directory is bound from /mnt term even though my root is from
fossil on the virtual disk. There are probably better file server
configurations, but essentially I don't really trust fossil from a performance
or stability standpoint.
Ron has his lguest stuff, that seems to work pretty well too, but he's in the
process of fixing it for more recent kernels as the underlying platform is
still a bit of a moving target.
-eric
On Apr 15, 2010, at 12:11 PM, Joel C. Salomon wrote:
> My computer died, so I'm in the market for a new one. I figure I'd
> like to get back into hacking on Plan 9 so I plan to install it
> beneath a VM in whatever machine I buy. I'm even considering Windows
> 7 Pro with Virtual PC, but I think I'd prefer Xen or one of the
> Linux-based things (VirtualBox, etc.).
>
> Ease of installation is important, as is the ability to run a somewhat
> normal (Windows or Linux) host OS. Are there any recommendations?
>
> —Joel
>
