Since Microsoft just decided to release its Virtual PC virtualization product for free I decided to give it a spin and see how Plan 9 worked as a virtualized OS. I downloaded Virtual PC from here (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/downloads/sp1.mspx) and installed it on a Proliant server with a 2.4 GHz Xeon processor, 1.3 GB of RAM, and a 15K SCSI disk, Windows 2000 Server. Virtual PC complained that it was only supported on Windows 2003 and Windows XP but seemed to install fine.
At the partdisk prompt I was not able to install a Master Boot Record (mbr) in Virtual PC's virtual disk partition and so the installation stopped dead. Does anyone have any insight to this problem or a possible work-aounrd? Running Plan 9 under the now free Virtual PC would eliminate a lot of hardware compatibility headaches and make Plan 9 more accessible to a large number of people running Windows. - Andrew
