On Sun, 2010-04-11 at 05:02 -0400, [email protected] wrote: > I have several old laptops (running Windows 95 and Windows 2000) that > are being decommissioned, and one new one on which there is an > occasional-use Windows XP system. (The new one normally runs Linux) > > I'd like to copy their contents into virtual machines running under > Linux. Preferable free-software VMs. > > (1) What virtual-machine systems, and what image-creation software, do > you recommend? > > (2) They're all 32-bit systems, but at some time in the future, (years > off now, but I plan ahead) 32-bit Intel systems are probably going to > become unavailable, and I'll have to emulate on something else. > Does this affect your answer? > > -- hendrik >
I think virtualbox would be the perfect solution for you. It's free software (apt-get install virtualbox-ose), it's fast, and you can run 32bit guests from a 64bit host environment. Apparently migrating windows installations to a virtualbox image is a bit tricky, but they have a page with some instructions to help you along: http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Migrate_Windows I've been using virtualbox for years and it hasn't let me down, it's a really nice piece of software. Although I should mention that if you need USB support you'll have to use the non-free version of virtualbox which is available in binary form only from their website. Hope this helps, nick _______________________________________________ mlug mailing list [email protected] https://listes.koumbit.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mlug-listserv.mlug.ca
