tigger
Trail Wise!
Posts: 2,550
|
Post by tigger on Jul 2, 2015 19:46:33 GMT -8
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2015 6:26:03 GMT -8
Why dual boot? Just load vmware workstation and setup as many different virtual machines as you're hardware will support......
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2015 11:31:38 GMT -8
Ben: The way most people setup vmware workstation is to run on top of the OS, or, the machine boots windows and then vmware workstation, or the free version, vmware player is loaded as a program. At that point, you can then load guest systems of many different operating systems....
On my desktop, I boot windows 8, then start vmware.....where I have a windows 7 machine, a ubuntu machine, a fedora machine, solaris machine and several others....I can run several virtual machines at the same time, and this is where it depends on your resources......memory being the big one.....
With vmware workstation, when the grand kids come over, I clone my windows 7 machine which takes about 5 minutes and give them the clone to use. When they leave I delete it....this keeps what ever malware viruses etc on their machine....and actually, my windows 7 machine was created from a "gold copy", or a fully configured machine that is used to spin up other guests.
The freeware version (vmware player) isn't fully featured and doesn't have snapshots and cloning....
Microsoft has their own product but the desktop product only does windows guests...
Oracle has a virtualization product as well and it's pretty good from what I hear but I haven't ran it....
Try it....you'll like it....
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2015 15:01:57 GMT -8
No, that is not correct Ben. Basically you have the host (hardware and OS). Load workstation and create the guest via the same install process you would use for a physical install (cd, iso, usb etc) and go through the install process like you normally would. Systems setting on the guest are persistent. If I need more memory on a guest, I can edit the setting and allocate more....same with processors.......You still apply updates just like you always did and once you get it setup, you clone it and turn off the original. That's your gold copy......you can clone a new machine from it should the one you're running gets corrupted....or, if you don't want to clone it.....you can take a snapshot before surfing the web etc and if you get corruption you can revert the snap and your good to go at the point in time the snapshot was created.
Nothing changes unless you change it.
Many, actually most, data centers are now virtual and many enterprises are running virtual desttops not to save money but to allow easier administration. Because it virtual, it's easy to move and portable. Visualization is the backbone of the cloud. In a virtual machine, most of the machine is on one file and there's only a few files associated with each guest....and most of those are log files...
So, I can take my virtual machine....and move it to your hardware, with only a few mouse clicks in most cases.
Vmware player is a good way to play in the virtual world for free, or, there is a free version of esxi if you don't want to run an OS on the hardware......esxi is a hypervisor.....runs the host hardware and allows the guest to interact with the host. Again, I run the paid version, vmware workstation.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2015 9:54:26 GMT -8
You're welcome.....the machine I'm posting from now is a windows 7 virtual machine.......like you I wanted to play some in the unix/linux world....
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2015 10:03:23 GMT -8
This post is from my ubuntu machine running as a vm......I still have the windows machine up and running and can switch between the two.....my desktop hardware is an I7 with 12GB.....so the widows 8 machine I'm booted off of has 4 gb, the windows 7 machine has 4gb and the ubuntu maching has 4 gb....
One of the cool things about vmware is the way it uses memory....it has a process called ballooning.....so if the windows 7 machine, while allocated with 4gb of memory, isn't using all 4GB, and my ubuntu machine needs more memory, it can borrow it.....
Vmware is based on a resource pool, so any hardware in the pool is available for use by any virtual guest.......which can be thought of kind of like thin provisioning.......or rather, it can be over subscribed, at least to a point as all resources are shared....
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2015 10:14:01 GMT -8
This post is from my physical windows 8 machine. Again, this physical hardware still has all three OS's up and running at the same time and I can move back and forth between them at any time.
I can power off any of them, power them back on, and they retain all system settings...
|
|
|
Post by cloudwalker on Jul 10, 2015 18:48:10 GMT -8
Hey Ben, what version of Linux are you installing? I've played around with Ubuntu on an old PC and I have Zorin installed on an old Dell laptop that had XP on it. I pulled the original hard drive so I would always have a copy of XP on hand and installed a 160GB drive and loaded Zorin on to that. I've always been afraid of dual booting mainly because I'm technically challenged...LOL. Let us know how it works out for you.
|
|
texasbb
Trail Wise!
Hates chicken
Posts: 1,229
|
Post by texasbb on Jul 10, 2015 20:08:52 GMT -8
I agree with using a virtual machine. No reason to risk fouling your main OS when just trying things out. I prefer VirtualBox over VMware for home use, but the concept is the same. I've been using Linux since about '95 or so and at work my Windows machine runs full time in a virtual machine running under Linux. Works just as well the other way 'round.
|
|