Töre Çağrı Uyar » Virtualization

Linux Live USB Creator

Töre — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:01:17 +0000

I found a very handful software about making live USB linux systems. Personally I create USB based linux system with virtualization softwares like VirtualBox so I can use it like I do on my own computer; I mean the storage will be full persistent and I will be able to install softwares or save my account settings. But of course this is totally another story and is not the case all the time. Lots of you probably want to try linux without changing anything in your computer. With this software you can do it with your USB thumb drive. There is also a portable version of VirtualBox on site so you can run linux directly on your Windows without restarting by using the virtualization technologies. And here it is, Linux Lice USB Creator.

Linux Live USB Creator

Parallels Desktop for Windows and Linux

Töre — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 01:01:03 +0000

I decided to give a chance to commercial virtualization products because of bad performance issues I have encountered with VirtualBox on ubuntu linux. You need to install RealTime kernel for your virtualization system work as you expect on ubuntu. Even with RealTime kernel virtualization on ubuntu is not good enough in every phase. For linux host machines I figured out the best system is Fedora, but this is not our case right now.

I have installed Parallels Desktop on both Windows 7 Pro. and Ubuntu Karmic. 2 guest operating system was my test case, which were Windows XP Pro. and Ubuntu Karmic (again ). By the way I have licences for all operating systems I use both as host and guest. Quick and dirty way of telling my observations to you is a pros and cons list i guess.

Pros:

- Automatic installation of Windows systems (Requires you have a licence of guest OS)

- Simpler shared folder management

Cons:

- Bad performance compared to other virtualization products

- Similar product is free (VirtualBox) but this one is commercial

- Really bad visual performance and responsiveness

- 3D support doesn’t worked out of the box on Ubuntu Karmic guest.

- Linux version’s performance is good but of course if you can make it run!

Results: Short way, there is no need to pay some bucks to commercial software while you have a better one free, VirtualBox. Looks like a fine system if you are planning to use it on server virtualization because non-graphical application performance is really good and supervisor have an option for dynamic balancing of system resources. But for a workstation virtualization this software is far from perfect. Linux installation is easy but installing and running guest OSes is a head ache. Also have a USB driver problem on linux hosts which ends up with a frozen system. My opinion is give a chance on Parallels server systems but for desktop virtualization use VirtualBox.

Windows Virtual PC

Töre — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:03:06 +0000

I just able to get my hands on Windows Virtual PC for Windows 7. Can’t say Windows XP Mode is awesome but it works and it works better then any alternative on the market. Another free tool can be used to replace Windows Virtual PC is VirtualBox but of course VirtualBox can’t give you the slick usage Windows Virtual PC with Windows XP Mode installed. There is support for USB devices in native form so even if your device is not recognized by Windows 7 you can still use that device on Windows XP Mode. XP performance on Windows XP Mode is good, it is pretty much as fast as you can get by other virtualization software on the market. Also installed programs on Windows XP Mode appears on Windows 7 start menu so you can have a seamless integration for your old software. For newbies I recommend using Windows XP Mode as last solution because it will slow down both problematic running software and the entire system as a result of virtualization.

By the way maybe one of the most important things I observed while playing with Windows Virtual PC is it’s problems with linux. Do not try to install linux on Windows Virtual PC. I have tried installing Ubuntu, although live CD and installation worked fine i couldn’t started the installed system. I didn’t check the manuals about this (or the help files as Microsoft calls them) but what i was expecting is to at least seeing buggy working linux. On this phase you have great alternatives on market like VirtualBox which supports Windows and Linux OS as guest and host.

Update: Recently installed Windows XP on VirtualBox and when it comes to performance VirtualBox is far more better than any other alternative, again.