Re: [gentoo-amd64] Virtualization/WinXP

[Mark Knecht]

On Tue, Jan 26, 2010 at 1:47 PM, Marko Obrovac <marko.obrovac@×××××.com> wrote:
> Hello Mark,
>
> 2010/1/26 Mark Knecht <markknecht@×××××.com>
>>
>> Hi,
>>   OK - with the new machine up and running well enough to do some
>> work I really need to get some sort of virtualization going to see if
>> I can get around the fact that XP cannot be installed on this machine.
>> (at least not easily) I need to run TradeStation and I'd like to try
>> under Linux but Wine is ABSOLUTELY not an option.
>>
>>   I ran XP & TS on my older system (5 year old 3GHz AMD64)  but it's
>> been a long time since I tried it. The performance was just OK. I
>> expect this machine may be acceptable.
>>
>>   To anyone familiar with this subject a few questions:
>>
>> 1) If I go the VMWare route is it vmware-workstation that I want?
>
> AFAIK, vmware-workstation is the not license-free, so you'll have to invest
> some money in it. You might want to try vmware-player (if you want to go the
> vmware way). It is free, but it comes with restrictions. The major
> disadvantage is - you can't create your own images, you can only "play"
> them.

The last time I looked at this (maybe a year ago?) I decided that the
vmware-workstation would let a home user run something like two
instances without charges. Not free in that I'm limited to something
specific but no cost. (Is that free beer? It certainly doesn't sound
like Free Speech...)

Being that my intention is to run TradeStation and hopefully make some
money I'm not if I qualify anymore.

>>
>> 2) Are there any prebuilt XP images that would save me the hassle of
>> installing Win XP and just allow me to validate with my existing keys?
>> Is this the purpose of vmware-player? (which doesn't seem to have
>> fetch restrictions...)
>
>  Many sites (like this one: http://www.filestube.com/v/vmware+windows+image)
> offer you ready-to-go vmdk images. Google will help you find a lot of sites
> like this one.
>>
>> 3) In some ways the most important question is what are the Open
>> Source alternatives and how easy are they to set up?
>
> There are (at least) three alternatives: VirtualBox (
> http://www.virtualbox.org , http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/VirtualBox ), kVM
> ( http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/Main_Page ,
> http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/KVM ) and Qemu ( http://www.qemu.org/
> , http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/QEmu )
> In my opinion, VirtualBox is a very good (and open source) alternative to
> VMWare, and if all you need out of the virtualization software is to be able
> to run TradeStation, I'd definitely go for this one.
> kVM and Qemu can be a bit confusing for a beginner (in virtualization), and,
> although they can offer better performance than vbox, I don't think they're
> worth the hassle for your specific needs.

I guess virtualbox-box is non-GPL? I have to accept Sun's PUEL. Not a
big deal to me I suppose. It's a pretty simple document and I'm a
pretty simple guy. Good fit.

Actually, VirtualBox is so straight forward that I'm installing WinXP
as I write this. The only tricks so far were to modprobe the kernel
driver and figure out that there's a bit of a delay from when my CD
spins up until it recognizes that the CD is really there.

...

Windows splash screen up

OK - it says 39 minutes until installation will be done but most
likely it will go much faster.

Thanks! If the performance is good this will be nice.

Back later...

Cheers,
Mark