Run Vista Inside Linux

[fanciman]

How easy is it to set up VMware in Ubuntu and then use it to run Vista inside linux?

Which would be the best version of VMware to do this? Is it expensive for 1 person?

Once somebody has got as far as having Ubuntu and VMware properly installed, and then got Vista going in VMware, is installing a windows program into that Vista as easy as normal?

Any good resources on doing this sort of thing?

Thank you!

[Tywais]

How easy is it to set up VMware in Ubuntu and then use it to run Vista inside linux?

Which would be the best version of VMware to do this? Is it expensive for 1 person?

Once somebody has got as far as having Ubuntu and VMware properly installed, and then got Vista going in VMware, is installing a windows program into that Vista as easy as normal?

I run VMWare but under WinXP but it functions the same under Linux. I have a couple of versions of Linux installed under VMWare and a clean copy of XP and another of Windows Vista. They all run fine and can run concurrently, that is Linux, XP, Vista and switch back and forth between them.

Installing VMWare under Ubuntu

VMWare Workstation 6.0 for Linux > $189.00 USD Price List

There is a free alternative to VMWare for XP/Vista > Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

however, some things to be aware of about it > Linux.com Article

[Gregory Morozov]

There is no need to buy VMWare, there is a free solution - VirtualBox, works for me

[Tywais]

There is no need to buy VMWare, there is a free solution - VirtualBox, works for me

Very nice. I haven't seen that one before and will give it a test run.

[fanciman]

Is VirtualBox supported by Ubuntu?

Can VirtualBox (or VMware, for that matter) run a Windows 3d game, like Assasins Creed? I heard that 3d support is not available in VMware, though I am not sure.

I also heard that there Ubuntu has a free VMware server available. It has experimental support for Vista.

[Tywais]

Is VirtualBox supported by Ubuntu?

Supported systems Just scroll through the Platforms list box. Several versions of Ubuntu listed.

Can VirtualBox (or VMware, for that matter) run a Windows 3d game, like Assasins Creed? I heard that 3d support is not available in VMware, though I am not sure.

I'm not 100% sure on that but since the high end games require more direct access to the video card that may be true.

[Gumballl]

Pay for VMware?? Why? Get the VMware-server for free. Here's the link: http://www.vmware.com/products/server/

[fanciman]

I just saw that there is a free beta vmware workstation here:

http://communities.vmware.com/community/beta/workstation6.5

[Richard-BKK]

I run VMware Workstation on Linux Host computers with MS Windows XP/Vista Guest operating systems. It works great never have any problem, most of our systems run Fedora 8 Linux, but we have also a Ubuntu user.

VMware Workstation is what you need, its easy to setup and service. The only problem sometimes is when we install new kernels for our Linux host operating system. VMware has to be recompiled what sometimes give some headache (Compiling is a big work, everything is don automatic by scripts)

We selected VMware for the capability to work with multiple processors (or processor cores), other products can let the host operating system to a complete usefulness. With VMware using 2 cores of a Intel Core2 Quarto we still capable to run programs on the Linux host operating system will MS Windows Vista is running with 2 cores and 2GB memory at acceptable speed.

The computer has 3GB memory and a dedicated hard drive for the virtual systems. Which is a other enhancement not found in other virtual machine products, VMware Workstation is capable to access a hard drive on a PATA/SATA interface without bothering the host operating system. Most virtual machines lose a lot of speed by translating HDD instructions. VMware is so fast that I can hardly feel the difference

[Richard-BKK]

Additional to the ability to run MS Windows in a box, and copy it like a file and restore it if something go's wrong. You can also play around with other operating systems, on the experimental level you can even play around with Apple latest OS-X operating system and this all in your virtual machine.

[Richard-BKK]

Here a example of the Apple in the box, just for the fun of it....... By the way I use VMware Workstation 6.03

[autonomous_unit]

Yes, VMware server is great and free (no cost, not free as in open source). You just have to go to the website and register your email address and answer a short survey to request a license key to use the software.

As mentioned though, the biggest hassle with VMware on Linux hosts is if you find that the vmware-config command fails due to a recent kernel update breaking the kernel modules that must be compiled from the VMware package. Usually you can just search for a vmware-any-any-updateXYZ patch file and apply it, but I've recently found some periods of time where this did not work for an up-to-date Fedora 8 system. (I keep my Fedora system in sync with the updates nightly, and it can take a while for things to catch up with new kernels.)

I don't see why anybody would use VMware workstation anymore. The free server product is more capable in my opinion.

There is also the built-in "kvm" virtualization in recent Linux systems on recent hardware (recent AMD socket AM2 and Intel Core 2 chips). I've run a standard Windows XP install inside kvm before as a test. But, this requires more finesse than VMware, so probably would not be a wise alternative for someone who finds the VMware stuff difficult to configure.