Gentoo Archives: gentoo-amd64

From: Beso <givemesugarr@×××××.com>
To: gentoo-amd64@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-amd64] Virtualization/WinXP
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:02:58
Message-Id: d257c3561001270641j73fccc65t9b6c11454ae10d1d@mail.gmail.com
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-amd64] Virtualization/WinXP by Mark Knecht
1 2010/1/27 Mark Knecht <markknecht@×××××.com>
2
3 > On Tue, Jan 26, 2010 at 1:47 PM, Marko Obrovac <marko.obrovac@×××××.com>
4 > wrote:
5 > > Hello Mark,
6 > >
7 > > 2010/1/26 Mark Knecht <markknecht@×××××.com>
8 > >>
9 > >> Hi,
10 > >> OK - with the new machine up and running well enough to do some
11 > >> work I really need to get some sort of virtualization going to see if
12 > >> I can get around the fact that XP cannot be installed on this machine.
13 > >> (at least not easily) I need to run TradeStation and I'd like to try
14 > >> under Linux but Wine is ABSOLUTELY not an option.
15 > >>
16 > >> I ran XP & TS on my older system (5 year old 3GHz AMD64) but it's
17 > >> been a long time since I tried it. The performance was just OK. I
18 > >> expect this machine may be acceptable.
19 > >>
20 > >> To anyone familiar with this subject a few questions:
21 > >>
22 > >> 1) If I go the VMWare route is it vmware-workstation that I want?
23 > >
24 > > AFAIK, vmware-workstation is the not license-free, so you'll have to
25 > invest
26 > > some money in it. You might want to try vmware-player (if you want to go
27 > the
28 > > vmware way). It is free, but it comes with restrictions. The major
29 > > disadvantage is - you can't create your own images, you can only "play"
30 > > them.
31 >
32 > The last time I looked at this (maybe a year ago?) I decided that the
33 > vmware-workstation would let a home user run something like two
34 > instances without charges. Not free in that I'm limited to something
35 > specific but no cost. (Is that free beer? It certainly doesn't sound
36 > like Free Speech...)
37 >
38 > Being that my intention is to run TradeStation and hopefully make some
39 > money I'm not if I qualify anymore.
40 >
41 > >>
42 > >> 2) Are there any prebuilt XP images that would save me the hassle of
43 > >> installing Win XP and just allow me to validate with my existing keys?
44 > >> Is this the purpose of vmware-player? (which doesn't seem to have
45 > >> fetch restrictions...)
46 > >
47 > > Many sites (like this one:
48 > http://www.filestube.com/v/vmware+windows+image)
49 > > offer you ready-to-go vmdk images. Google will help you find a lot of
50 > sites
51 > > like this one.
52 > >>
53 > >> 3) In some ways the most important question is what are the Open
54 > >> Source alternatives and how easy are they to set up?
55 > >
56 > > There are (at least) three alternatives: VirtualBox (
57 > > http://www.virtualbox.org , http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/VirtualBox ),
58 > kVM
59 > > ( http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/Main_Page ,
60 > > http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/KVM ) and Qemu ( http://www.qemu.org/
61 > > , http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/QEmu )
62 > > In my opinion, VirtualBox is a very good (and open source) alternative to
63 > > VMWare, and if all you need out of the virtualization software is to be
64 > able
65 > > to run TradeStation, I'd definitely go for this one.
66 > > kVM and Qemu can be a bit confusing for a beginner (in virtualization),
67 > and,
68 > > although they can offer better performance than vbox, I don't think
69 > they're
70 > > worth the hassle for your specific needs.
71 >
72 > I guess virtualbox-box is non-GPL? I have to accept Sun's PUEL. Not a
73 > big deal to me I suppose. It's a pretty simple document and I'm a
74 > pretty simple guy. Good fit.
75 >
76 >
77 there's a virtualbox version which is licensed under gplv2, but it doesn't
78 have some guest additions that are included inside the bin package. anyway
79 the bin package is free for personal use. i've read that license, and SUN
80 does grant you the personal use of the software even for production
81 environments, as long ad it is you that install it and use it, and as long
82 as other users of the pc you're using are installing their own copy. if you
83 still want to be totally free you could just emerge the non bin version.
84 remember to also install the virtualbox-modules.
85
86 --
87 dott. ing. beso