[AuckLUG] Deserting Windows for Linux ...

[Daniel Pittman]

David Love <zed at zed.net.nz> writes:
> In message <87ac0lt1yn.fsf at rimspace.net>
>           Daniel Pittman <daniel at rimspace.net> wrote:
>
>> David Love <zed at zed.net.nz> writes:

[...]

>>> This just leaves the problem as to how I continue using Family
>>> Historian.  I understand that it runs on Linux using CrossOver
>>> Office - and possibly WINE - but rather like the idea of using
>>> Xen. I have no idea whether this is possible.
>> 
>> Well, using WINE may work.  Using Xen requires that you have a system
>> with hardware virtualization support to run Windows -- which, I
>> believe, is code-named "Pacifica" and is only in the most recent
>> Athlon64 CPUs.
>
> My machine is just over a year old, so I doubt it qualifies.

No, I don't think it will.  You can probably check the documentation to
find out for sure.  Without it you can't run an unmodified kernel under
Xen, so no Windows.[1]

>> You can run VMWare on the machine without that support, though, so
>> that is also an option.
>
> Just been reading LinuxUser & Developer magazine - issue 67 which has
> an article on the Parallels virtualisation software.  It mentions that
> it supports the Intel virtualisation technology and is due to support
> AMD's in a future release.  Would this be an alternative way to go?

VMWare also supports the Intel/AMD virtualisation technology -- which
makes running an unmodified OS more efficient.  VMWare, at least, can
make do without it though.

I don't know Parallels but, so far as I can tell, it isn't fundamentally
different from VMWare in design.  It virtualises the system and runs an
unmodified OS.

I can't comment on how it supports pre-VT CPUs doing that.  VMWare
server has been good enough for me when I needed something like that
and, pleasantly, is free-as-in-beer these days.

Regards,
        Daniel

Footnotes: 
[1]  Well, if you could get your hands on the modified XEN HAL that they
     made while testing it would work, but no one can get hold of that. ;)

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