[CALUG] SPAM-LOW: Re: SPAM-LOW: Re: Linux Friendly Laptops

[Gardner Pomper]

Hi,

VMWare is a virtualization technology, similar to Xen and Microsoft's
Virtual PC, but it has been around a lot longer and works much better.
Basically, it "virtualizes" your hardware (NOT the cpu) so that you can run
multiple OSs at the same time on your PC. A side benefit, that I have
appreciated VERY much, is that it lets you run windows as the base (host)
operating system where all the devices work (like your video card, wireless
card, etc). When you install VMware, the "guest" operating systems see just
a regular network adapter.. they don't even know it is a wireless card, so
you don't have to install drivers for anything.

I run XP as my host, and I have VM guests for Fedora 2, Fedora 4, Mandriva
10.1, Scyld, OpenMosix and a ClusterMatic enabled FC 4. I can run any one
(or several) at one time. Running several can eat up your memory, so I have
upgraded my laptop to 2GB and I can run at least 4 OSs simultaneously with
no problem.

If I decide that I want to use a different computer, I can just copy the
VMware session over (5-10GB) and run it on a different PC. I am considering
setting up a desktop with multiple video monitors (more than the 2 I have
with my laptop) and using that when I am at home and the laptop when I am
away. I'll just put the VMware sessions on an external 2.5" USB 2.0 HD and
plug it into whichever computer I feel like.

There are a few things that keep this from being perfect:

1) VMware doesn't support "odd" hardware, like TV tuners, etc. But it does
support USB devices
2) It doesn't virtualize the CPU. that's good, because it runs fast, but its
bad because my Pentium M in my laptop runs a different linux kernel than a
Pentium 4 desktop, so to do what I said above with the desktop PC, I will
have to have a Pentium M in that
3) We (another guy at IBM and I) have been unable to get gigabit throughput
through the gigabit LAN adapter on any PC, so my network access is back down
at about 100MB.
4) I expect (haven't tried games in the VMs) that the video performance
would be degraded, but it is perfectly acceptable for regular X windows
work.

To sum up, if you want to dive into driver configuration and Myth TV and
linux games, stay with a native linux install. Otherwise, put Windows XP on
your laptop, install VMware and have as many different linux distros booted
as you want to.I am using it as the head node on my development cluster at
home.

New news: I bought VMware workstation (list $199) because it was the
cheapest. Their next one up, GSX was like $1000. But they have release the
beta of GSX for free recently and rumor at least has it that it will stay
free. I don't know if GSX has as much hardware support as Workstation, but
you can give it a try.

- Gardner Pomper
P.S. I'd love to go to a UG meeting sometime. When and where are they?

On 3/3/06, Eric Gosnell <eric.gosnell at embedded-sys.com> wrote:
>
> Thanks.
> Please, tell me more about VMWare.  I have heard people here post about it
> before, but I don't know much about it.  I never thought I would need it.
>
> Eric
>
>
> Quoting Gardner Pomper <gardner at networknow.org>:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I am using an IBM T42, which supposedly can have linux on it, but I
> could
> > never get the wireless to work. That said, I installed VMware
> Workstation
> > ($150?) on it and run several linuxes now. Let windows handle the funky
> > driver stuff and linux is great. Using VMware Workstation, you should be
> > able to get pretty much any notebook you want, and also have the
> convenience
> > of just doing new distro installs without disturbing what you already
> have
> > working.
> >
> > On 3/1/06, Josiah Ritchie <josiah.ritchie at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> http://www.emperorlinux.com/ sells notebooks with Linux already on
> >> them. I'd like to get my hands on the ThinkPad X41 they have all
> >> setup. It's pretty sweet. It even has the fingerprint scanner working
> >> which I think its pretty safe to say you won't find anywhere else.
> >>
> >> JSR/
> >> _______________________________________________
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> --
> Eric N. Gosnell
> Embedded Systems Design, Inc.
> 6810 Deerpath Road, Suite 300
> Elkridge, MD 21075
> 410-712-7290 (voice)
> 410-712-7291 (fax)
>
> eric.gosnell at embedded-sys.com
> Voice Mail ext. 223
>
>
>
>
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