> -----Original Message----- > From: Frank Mehnert [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2012 11:54 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [VBox-users] change from IDE Controller to SATA > > John, > > On Wednesday 17 October 2012 17:37:19 John A. Wallace wrote: > > While I have enormous appreciation of Oracle VirtualBox, having no > > doubt that most reasonable persons share this opinion as well, it is > > not yet perfect. Yet, perfection of software is also not an > > expectation of reasonable persons but only a mark of excellence > toward > > which to strive earnestly. > > Right, VirtualBox is indeed not perfect nor bug free. > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: Frank Mehnert [mailto:[email protected]] > > > Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2012 3:56 AM > > > To: Community mailing list of VirtualBox users > > > Subject: Re: [VBox-users] change from IDE Controller to SATA > > > > > > John, > > > > > > On Tuesday 16 October 2012 08:44:47 John A. Wallace wrote: > > > > One more question arises in regard to this, does Virtual Box > > > > provide drivers for the SATA Controllers/Disks for Windows XP to > > > > use for attaching one of these devies? I had thought that they > > > > would be in > > > > > > the > > > > > > > guest additions, but apparently not. The lack of native support > > > > for these devices by Windows XP explains how I ended up with the > > > > IDE attachment, but I do still want to move it to SATA. Thanks. > > > > > > VirtualBox does not provide Windows drivers to support SATA. There > > > is no reason to do so. If the guest supports SATA then it will > > > surely provide drivers for this hardware itself. > > > > The drivers to enable support for these devices on systems that do > not > > support them natively normally come from the hardware vendors along > > with the devices themselves. Since VirtualBox is in the business of > > providing a platform for the virtualization of hardware, which is to > > present (i.e., an emulation of) a hardware-like environment to the > > guest OS, it would seem like a natural extension of this idea to > include the hardware drivers. > > After all, one would not expect hardware vendors themselves to be > > inclined to provide VirtualBox with the very drivers needed to bypass > > their products. > > I do not agree. VirtualBox ships a lot of devices to support various > guest operating systems. For instance, use the PCnet network card for > older OSes, use the E1000 device for newer OSes. Use the legacy IDE > controller for older OSes, use the SATA controller for newer OSes. > > Shipping device drivers as part of the VirtualBox Guest Additions > increases the load to the development team *a lot*. First, we have to > take care of the license issues. If we allowed to redistribute drivers > then we have to check if only in binary form or if we are allowed to > provide the driver sources (keep in mind that most of the Guest > Additions code is open source). If we are not allowed to redistribute > drivers, develop drivers ourself. And SATA drivers a very complex. > > We had also to keep track of the security issues, release updates if > there were any issues found. And so on. > > And this just to provide a driver for a guest which does not ship the > driver itself but which works perfectly with an alternative device? If > you ask me, that's too much of effort for too less benefit. I would > rather spend that time for fixing bugs and implementing new features, > and our resources are very limited (unfortunately) and I assume you > agree here. > > Thanks for understanding, > Hi, Frank.
You have made some excellent points, not all of which even occurred to me, and I do appreciate your having taken the time to clarify these for us. I am not a programmer, although I do create scripts for administrative tasks and a few other interesting activities of mine; so I lack a full understanding of everything this project entails. Nevertheless, as I stated already (and I have no qualms reiterating), this is an excellent program and the support resources are well presented and comprehensive. I certainly hope my comments did not seem insensitive to the project leaders or others who support VBox. Take care and thank you, again. John ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Everyone hates slow websites. So do we. Make your web apps faster with AppDynamics Download AppDynamics Lite for free today: http://p.sf.net/sfu/appdyn_sfd2d_oct _______________________________________________ VBox-users-community mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/vbox-users-community _______________________________________________ Unsubscribe: mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe
