| Virtual Ubuntu: traps for young players |
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| by David M Williams | |
| Wednesday, 06 August 2008 | |
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Page 2 of 3 Microsoft have made available online the virtual machine additions for Linux, but this is only marked as compatible with Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 – that is, it may not necessarily work for earlier versions of Virtual Server (although it is a free product, why not use the latest?) or for the desktop edition, Virtual PC.Featured Whitepaper
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Similarly, VMWare requires installation of their VM Tools. This is fundamentally the same thing, it is software for the virtual computer which lets it integrate more seamlessly with the host environment including, as above, to allow the mouse pointer to freely float between windows. VMWare provide VM Tools for Linux from the start, and these similarly are provided as an ISO image which must be mounted within the virtual environment. However, in VMWare’s case the tools for Linux are actually in source code format and are compiled before your eyes, for your specific setup. I’ve used these successfully with Ubuntu and CentOS distributions and they worked perfectly both times. With the above two major issues covered you should be able to get your favoured Linux flavour installed and running to a satisfactory degree on either of these two major virtual machine packages. Even so, I really believe there is a clear leader when it comes to virtualising Linux. Although you can make Virtual PC install and run Linux you will find that it is left behind by VMWare when it comes to customising and tweaking your setup. Under VMWare you can manage an entire virtual network, emulate IDE and SCSI hard drives and work with USB hardware connected to the host machine. You can’t do this with Virtual PC. More than this, the VMWare virtual machines are upgradeable, meaning you can add new virtual hardware to them, like more network adapters or serial and parallel ports or SCSI devices. What is especially nice is you can construct your own virtual network within a single VMWare setup. VMWare’s virtual networking is so feature rich that a separate utility is provided just to manage these adapters. By contrast, Virtual PC locks down the hardware platform it emulates to a bog standard level. The software works, by all means, and it has a very streamlined interface which makes it easy particularly for newcomers to work with, but VMWare just has far greater functionality. CONTINUED |
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