Virtual Machines

[Christopher Chan]

On Sunday, October 17, 2010 11:46 PM, d~_*b wrote:
> On 17 October 2010 01:31, Tom Browder<tom.browder at gmail.com>  wrote:
>> On Sat, Oct 16, 2010 at 10:58, Alex Gabriel<alexgabriel at bell.net>  wrote:
>>> On the subject of virtual machines, what's the opinion of others here on the best program to use? I've tried VirtualBox with Ubuntu (GNOME and KDE), FreeBSD, and Ubuntu Server.
>>>
>>> When I ran FreeBSD, there was no problem with boot following installation.  Ubuntu Server, though, just wouldn't boot. Installation proceeded as expected, but starting the virtual machine showed the boot process begin but couldn't complete.
>>>
>>> I tested this quite a while ago, and thus details are sketchy, but that was my experience.
>>>
>>> Do any of the subscribers here have any preferences or recommendations on running VM through Kubuntu?
>>>
>>> I'm looking to configure a file server running through a VM on a laptop with Kubuntu 10.10 installed. The laptop doesn't allow me to shut off the display (thereby preventing image burn), otherwise I'd simply install Ubuntu Server directly to the hard disk drive.  I'm familiar with FreeBSD, (K)Ubuntu, and OpenSUSE as installation environments.
>>>
>>> Any input would be greatly appreciated.
>>
>> I've fiddled with commercial VMware Workstation on Linux and
>> VirtualBox on Linux and Windows.  I've not been totally satisfied with
>> any.
>>
>> I'm now going to try Citrix's new XenServer (free version)running on
>> bare iron on a hand-me-down box dedicated to virtual guests.  See:
>>
>>   http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/feature.asp?contentID=2300351
>>
>> -Tom
>>
>> --
>> ubuntu-users mailing list
>> ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
>> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
>>
>
> I have been happy running Windows on VirtualBox over OpenSolaris and
> Solaris10 machines. I feel it provides seamless integration between
> the two environments and has less hassles during configuration.

Hassles? WHAT HASSLES? :-D Okay, maybe a tiny bit.

I ran a VNC session over the Net. The other side has a 100mbit 
connection and my side has a 50mbit connection. Installed Windows 7 
Professional and boy was it choppy. Turns out that the Nvidia display 
was not supported by the bundle driver. Get the latest from Nvidia, 
installed it, enabled 3D support in Virtualbox and installed the Guest 
drivers in Windows and hey presto! I can even watch a flash video being 
played in Windows (okay, no sound, a little bit choppy but this is over 
vnc) and I doubt that can be achieved with Linux and KVM at the moment.

Disk i/o was not too shabby either nevermind that there is no virtio 
infrastructure like there is on Linux but Virtualbox and OpenSolaris do 
support virtio for nics. Having done both kvm and Virtualbox, I am sold 
on vbox until a kvm solution makes use of a paravirtualized 3D solution 
for Windows. At which time I shall take another look.


>
> Guess I am more inclined towards Sun since I used to work for them
> till Oracle acquired it.

I don't care about whoever made the thing so much so as how great the 
product is. ZFS rocks. Now if only I can get all these other software 
with pesky usage of gcc extentions to compile with Sun Studio...


>
> Its a shame OpenSolaris is now dis-continued, however I hope Oracle
> proves itself by taking Solaris 11 Express to new heights
>

Who cares about what Oracle did? There is now Illumos for the kernel 
bits (okay, and a bit more) and choices of Nexenta if you like a Hardy 
env + gnu ld linked binaries or OpenIndiana which will attempt to carry 
on the legacy of OpenSolaris. In fact, with quite a few top engineers 
that were involved in stuff like dtrace and zfs out of Oracle's shadow 
and working on Illumos, it might even better whatever Oracle comes out 
with later if Illumos gets more people involved and hopefully a great 
distro or two too.