Comments on: What’s GNU in Virtualization

By: typhoidmary

typhoidmary — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I have used Sun\’s Virtual Box with great success. I have a Linux laptop. I occasionally need to attend a GoToMeeting, which is not Linux friendly. The solution was to install a Virtual Box VM with Windows XP on it. Even though my machine is a little older (1.4 GHz processor) this solution performed well. As a test I also tried the DimDim meeting software and was able to see the presenters webcam as well as the presentation. (This was just an exercise though since DimDim is Linux friendly.)

By: kfries6

kfries6 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Wow, in the march toward brevity, you really missed out on many of the coolest features of several packages.

I for one have given up on all but two products, both mentioned above.

On the desktop: VirtualBox. Why is based upon many of the types of features that you did not even mention above. Such as an integrated desktop. I rarely need Windows apps any more, but when I do, I don\'t like trying to have my desktop in a window. So, instead, I use seemless desktop feature that causes my windows desktop to disappear except for the bar at the bottom. Now I have a Windows startbar on my Linux desktop. Couple that with the share folders, and it is as if my Windows apps are running on my Linux desktop... Wanta freak out your favorite Linux hater / Windows fanboy? Share your desktop, then run MS Word right from you Linux system, and open files on your desktop. Watch them freak! ah, good times, good times.

For the server: ProxMoxVE. This is not the same as your standard, free version of VMWare, or the open version of Xen. This is closer to the enterprise version of both of these products, neither of which is free. Live migration and failover between virtual servers. Hello! How did this little gem get missed in a side by side comparison? And unlike so many other products (like VMWare), there is no goofy client to remote the desktop. Instead, it uses a built-in version of VNC. So, you can use standard tools from you desktop to remote it.

Virtual machines have come a long way in the past few years. It would be interesting to see the same article written five years from now.

By: jedmeister

jedmeister — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

+1 for ProxmoxVE - its awesome! Gives you OpenVZ for excellent performance of Linux OSs and KVM for when you want other OSs. Very neat web-based interface that gives you plenty of control.

As for the desktop, VirtualBox sounds like its come a long way. Once they get 3D fully sorted out (for games etc) I\'ll be able to ditch Win all together! Yay!

By: khess

khess — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

@kfries6

You\'re right, it is brief but in future posts, I\'ll do more in-depth analysis of each technology individually. And, I hope I\'m still around doing this column five years from now to repeat this entry. Thanks for your feedback.

By: apexwm

apexwm — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I can testify that VirtualBox is an awesome piece of software. I run an XP virtual machine on my Fedora 10 workstation, and in seamless mode it\'s just like running Windoze directly on the machine. Seamless mode gives you the Windoze task bar at the bottom, and allows the apps to open in their own windows to take advantage of the full resolution while giving you access to your Linux desktop at the same time. It is very similar to running apps in Wine, except that they run in their native XP environment. I even hooked up my USB scanner and other devices and they show right up in the VM and work perfectly, even with proprietary XP drivers. Performance is very good, too. I would definitely recommend VirtualBox to anybody needing desktop emulation.

On the server end, KVM seems the way to go. Having everything integrated into the kernel has its advantages, too. In fact the negative feedback seems to be recently coming from those using Windoze and running into licensing issues and costs. While those of us using Linux for the host/guest can upgrade without those pesky licensing woes.

http://members.apex-internet.com/sa/windowslinux

By: kimkhan

kimkhan — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

A colleague of mine with his new desktop running windows XP 64bit was having compatibility issue with his years old palm desktop software. He needed a 32bit environment to run his decades old palm software to access all his contacts. So I installed virtualbox for him and he couldn\'t be any happier.

A buddy of mine running Vista (hates vista) but wanted to try out windows 7 to make sure he likes it before making the switch (I tried to convince to ditch vista but he wanted to make sure he does not make the same mistake again !). So virtualBox with seamless mode was the answer.

For all my testings with (PBX, ERP, CRM, ECM, CMS) opensource stuff, I am using Xenserver. I also used OpenVZ for a little bit. You need a little bit of tweaking knowledge with dynamic resource management when using OpenVZ. For newbies who has lots of RAM, powerful CPU and does not care and just want to dedicate resources to a few virtual machines (VMs), xenserver would be the way to go.

By: mikaeltristan

mikaeltristan — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hi All,

I have several server :
- file server ( linux )
- proxy server ( linux )
- mail server ( windows server 2003 )
- database sql server ( windows server 2003 )
- fax server ( windows server 2003 )

I want to virtual all server to one server. How to make it ? How about server spesification and what software should I use ?

Thanks and Regards,
Tristan