This is the design I am putting in place now. openSuSE with be the host OS with WinXP, SLES and OSX as VMs in VMware. The shared data drive is accessed with networking protocols. From what I hear trying to access the data natively from mutilple OSs is asking for trouble.
VMs don't have the same access to hardware as the host OS so make sure the host can do anything you ever heard about doing so if you try to access some hardware device in a VM and it doesn't work you can still do it at the host level. For example, not all USB devices are created equal. Cheers. Bob Crandell On Thu, 2008-07-31 at 21:35 -0700, marbux wrote: > On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 9:29 AM, Bob Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > You might also want to consider just getting another box. > > Keep one stable for real work, and play on the other. > > > > If your finances, living space, or briefcase won't support two whole > > computers, you could get one or more external USB hard drives and boot > > the experimental stuff on that. > > Household management has shot down a second computer. Something about > decor. :-) I already tried with the fantasy of using a second box > parked upstairs for back-up purposes and having a substitute computer > for when this one goes wonky. But I could probably get away with an > external drive if I park it in my desktop shelving. However, I'd > really like to get away from dual-booting if I can. > > > Aside from some magic grub configuration, Linux on a USB drive acts > > just linux on normal hardware. > > Are read/write speeds comparable? I have a vague recollection of > someone saying USB hard drives suffer from lower data transfer rates. > > That is NOT the case for virtual > > hosts. > > I'd appreciate a short list of major losses in functionality. Running > Kubuntu Hardy on Virtual Box/WinXP has worked for me thus far, but I > haven't tried everything I might want to do and wouldn't want to box > myself in too tightly. And my fantasy is to in effect swap what is > host and what is guest. > > > Experimentation is great fun. Having a reliable, running system, > > though, is mandatory. > > Agreed. I've been running on a Band-Aid solution far too long. I need > to get to the bottom of my hardware issues and redesign the system > from the ground up. > > > I thought Microsoft was no longer selling XP licenses, BTW. > > Publicly, that's the policy. But in reality Microsoft is still > publishing WinXP, commonly offshore or under a "buy a Vista license > get a free copy of XP" regime. See e.g., > <http://apcmag.com/xp_still_killing_vista_in_sales_volume_hp.htm> and > <http://apcmag.com/windows_xp_is_dead_long_live_windows_xp.htm> > (Microsoft quietly extended XP support for three more years in June; > "Mr Veghte gave the cryptic explanation that '...customers who still > need Windows XP will be able to get it.'" > > It's largely limited to major accounts and suppliers from all signs, > but XP is reaching the market anyway. Ebay in particular seems to be > the major online market for XP retail sales these days. > > The Vista sales figures are reportedly pretty much meaningless because > of the buy-Vista-get-XP-free stuff. Microsoft is in a hard spot. > Removing XP from the market would spur OEM migration to Linux, > particularly in the low-system resource PC market. > > <tangent> > > The vaporware is flowing for Singularity-derived Midori, a Microsoft > cross-hardware platform (x86, x64 and ARM thus far) replacement for > Windows that's also supposed to scale to cloud computing. > <http://www.sdtimes.com/content/article.aspx?ArticleID=32627>. > > Microsoft is also in a bottleneck in cloud computing. Windows High > Performance Cluster Server won't scale high enough. The Microsoft > work-around for now is multiple instances of WinHPCS running atop > Solaris and Sun x86-x64 hardware. Sun has a very groovy modular > approach to building cloud computing data centers, data center modules > in a shipping container.<http://www.sun.com/products/sunmd/s20/index.jsp> > (Google has a potentially blocking patent, but reportedly there's tons > of prior art. > <http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7,278,273.PN.&OS=PN/7,278,273&RS=PN/7,278,27>. > > But the Sun-Microsoft deal expires in 2014. See the three April 1, > 2004 agreements at > <http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/709519/0001193125-04-155723-index.htm>. > And of course IBM wants a piece of the Solaris-based server farms > Microsoft is building for its cloud computing initiative and > proprietary assault on the open internet. See e.g., > <http://sun.systemnews.com/articles/114/3/news/18517>. > > So my sniff is that Midori may be as much about the Microsoft > bargaining position with Big Iron on the 2014 horizon as it is a plan > to replace the NT-derived branch of Windows, particularly given > Microsoft's history of vaporware. Meanwhile, the enterprise market > still yawns when it comes to cloud and grid computing. > <http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9110329>. > > I don't have enough sheep entrails to foresee how such events will play out. > > </tangent> > > > Best regards, > > Paul > _______________________________________________ EUGLUG mailing list [email protected] http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug
