Virtual machine experiment

Gorion · October 31, 2010, 05:11:35 PM

Since I'm going to format in a couple of days I would like to test an idea I've been thinking about with Virtual machines.

Basically I want to physically install a 64bit linux OS (minimum resource usage and stability is extremely important), then use a linux VMware version to install w7 ultimate 64bit, xp and possibly 98se as virtual machines.

I'm looking for a gui based linux 64bit OS which needs minimal system resources in order to function as the "backbone".

Has anyone tried to do something similar and has some advice to give?

T-Bag · October 31, 2010, 07:56:32 PM

In uni we use XMing to load up Linux programs across a network which is as close as I've got to this (Read: not very).

My question is why go with Linux and then put a VM of windows on. I've had no stability problems with windows 7 and it has a built in virtual machine for windows XP. Virtual machines of linux on windows tend to work fairly well (for things like programming, latex, etc), and if that doesn't work you can always XMing into a second machine that does it (without using resources on the main computer).

It all depends what this project is for. If it's using demanding windows programs or strange hardware like modern games, cad software or music editing then the VM route might be less stable.

Tutonic · November 01, 2010, 08:25:34 AM

I think you'll struggle to run games on the virtual Windows box, Virtualization has come on leaps and bounds recently but you still take a performance hit (especially with hardware accelleration).

I'd love to be proved wrong though, it's a nice idea

Gorion · November 01, 2010, 04:14:23 PM

Quote from: Tutonic;318711I think you'll struggle to run games on the virtual Windows box, Virtualization has come on leaps and bounds recently but you still take a performance hit (especially with hardware accelleration).

That's why I'm looking for a low resource OS. Possibly in the <400mb ram usage.

This is for my main pc, so I'm going to play games and all on it. Once windows and all the usual applications are installed, I'll make a copy of the vmware machine and use it instead of having to ghost whenever I need a fresh start. I install my games in a separate drive so that won't be affected.

In the end windows is windows, so I'm always expecting trouble. In such a case, my pc remains usable and in order to go back to the usual I'll just need to startup the "default" machine with everything pre-installed.

Tutonic · November 01, 2010, 04:20:09 PM

I don't think it's going to matter how 'light' your host OS is - you're still going to be emulating DirectX etc, I think you're going to find performance to be choppy at best on the VM.

TeaLeaf · November 01, 2010, 10:49:03 PM

VM the Linux from a Windows box!

T-Bag · November 01, 2010, 11:45:29 PM

You'll never run games VMed from Linux as well as they'll run on Windows natively. If you're worried about windows 7 stability (I wouldn't mine has been on since the day of release and I've had no troubles) then pre-install a fully featured version of linux that you can boot into in emergencies, or put together a flash drive/live cd using http://www.linuxliveusb.com/ or the live disk creator.

Linux can be emulated well from inside windows, the same cannot yet be said the other way round...or at least not when I last toyed with it.

Gorion · November 02, 2010, 03:11:50 PM

I'm gonna give it a try and see what gives. If it doesn't work right I'll just reformat and go with windows as the host.
Been talking to some of my lecturers about it, and theoretically it should work if there is enough available ram.

Else, I'll just ghost the fresh windows install with all the applications I use.