Gordon

A genuine question:
Which is safer, to install linux, and run XP in a virtual machine (I have
Office 2007 which AFAIK won't run in WINE yet) or to keep my current
installation of XP and Office 2007 and run Linux in a virtual machine for
browsing, newsgroups etc?
If the latter, can someone point me to some info as to what distros will run
in Virtual PC 2007?

ta!

jasee

Gordon wrote:
> A genuine question:
> Which is safer, to install linux, and run XP in a virtual machine (I
> have Office 2007 which AFAIK won't run in WINE yet) or to keep my
> current installation of XP and Office 2007 and run Linux in a virtual
> machine for browsing, newsgroups etc?
> If the latter, can someone point me to some info as to what distros
> will run in Virtual PC 2007?

You can't run any linux distros on any of Ms's virtual machines. Try Vm
workstation for Linux, version 6 is very good I use it on top of Red Hat
thought it will run on top of many distributions. There's a list at
http://www.vmware.com

Theres also an enthusiastic forum. You can get a month's free trial. But the
cost of workstation 6 is only about $100. you can run dos, linux, all
versions of windows even Vista, Mac and IIRC solaris and others.

Gordon

"jasee" <jasee@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:aNydnWy6oLFIxNHanZ2dnUVZ8rOdnZ2d@bt.com...
> Gordon wrote:
>> A genuine question:
>> Which is safer, to install linux, and run XP in a virtual machine (I
>> have Office 2007 which AFAIK won't run in WINE yet) or to keep my
>> current installation of XP and Office 2007 and run Linux in a virtual
>> machine for browsing, newsgroups etc?
>> If the latter, can someone point me to some info as to what distros
>> will run in Virtual PC 2007?
>
> You can't run any linux distros on any of Ms's virtual machines. Try Vm
> workstation for Linux, version 6 is very good I use it on top of Red Hat
> thought it will run on top of many distributions. There's a list at
> http://www.vmware.com
>
> Theres also an enthusiastic forum. You can get a month's free trial. But
> the cost of workstation 6 is only about $100. you can run dos, linux, all
> versions of windows even Vista, Mac and IIRC solaris and others.
>


thanks for that - I've used the free VMWare Server before. Which of the two
scenarios above would you consider to be safer, or are they about the same?

alexd

Gordon wrote:

> "jasee" <jasee@btinternet.com> wrote in message
> news:aNydnWy6oLFIxNHanZ2dnUVZ8rOdnZ2d@bt.com...
>> Gordon wrote:
>>> A genuine question:
>>> Which is safer, to install linux, and run XP in a virtual machine (I
>>> have Office 2007 which AFAIK won't run in WINE yet) or to keep my
>>> current installation of XP and Office 2007 and run Linux in a virtual
>>> machine for browsing, newsgroups etc?
>>> If the latter, can someone point me to some info as to what distros
>>> will run in Virtual PC 2007?
>>
>> You can't run any linux distros on any of Ms's virtual machines. Try Vm
>> workstation for Linux, version 6 is very good I use it on top of Red Hat
>> thought it will run on top of many distributions. There's a list at
>> http://www.vmware.com
>>
>> Theres also an enthusiastic forum. You can get a month's free trial. But
>> the cost of workstation 6 is only about $100. you can run dos, linux, all
>> versions of windows even Vista, Mac and IIRC solaris and others.

> thanks for that - I've used the free VMWare Server before. Which of the
> two scenarios above would you consider to be safer, or are they about the
> same?

Windows inside Linux. Windows is more at risk from the internet than Linux
is, so deny Windows access to the internet. Also, you'll be able to
conserve resources by shutting down the Windows VM when you don't want to
use Office.

--
<http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) (UnSoEsNpEaTm@ale.cx)
19:36:29 up 16 days, 8:15, 2 users, load average: 0.11, 0.14, 0.10
Convergence, n: The act of using separate DSL circuits for voice and data

jasee

"alexd" <troffasky@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1212241.CnMgbo29vL@ale.cx...
> Gordon wrote:
>
>> "jasee" <jasee@btinternet.com> wrote in message
>> news:aNydnWy6oLFIxNHanZ2dnUVZ8rOdnZ2d@bt.com...
>>> Gordon wrote:
>>>> A genuine question:
>>>> Which is safer, to install linux, and run XP in a virtual machine (I
>>>> have Office 2007 which AFAIK won't run in WINE yet) or to keep my
>>>> current installation of XP and Office 2007 and run Linux in a virtual
>>>> machine for browsing, newsgroups etc?
>>>> If the latter, can someone point me to some info as to what distros
>>>> will run in Virtual PC 2007?
>>>
>>> You can't run any linux distros on any of Ms's virtual machines. Try Vm
>>> workstation for Linux, version 6 is very good I use it on top of Red Hat
>>> thought it will run on top of many distributions. There's a list at
>>> http://www.vmware.com
>>>
>>> Theres also an enthusiastic forum. You can get a month's free trial. But
>>> the cost of workstation 6 is only about $100. you can run dos, linux,
>>> all
>>> versions of windows even Vista, Mac and IIRC solaris and others.
>
>> thanks for that - I've used the free VMWare Server before. Which of the
>> two scenarios above would you consider to be safer, or are they about the
>> same?
>
> Windows inside Linux. Windows is more at risk from the internet than Linux
> is, so deny Windows access to the internet. Also, you'll be able to
> conserve resources by shutting down the Windows VM when you don't want to
> use Office.

Yes, agreed, however the virtual machine will run slower. Also if it's XP or
Vista you may have a licencing problem if you've already 'used' your
licence. You can import your existing machine into a virtual machine by
various methods but again you may run up against licencing problems unless
you've got a corporate licence or some 'other' version. Networking can be
set up between the real machine and the virtual machine so that they can
share files etc without connecting the virtual machine to the Internet (if
required). Up to 2 cpu's are supported on virtual machines.

Sheridan Hutchinson

jasee wrote:
> You can't run any linux distros on any of Ms's virtual machines.

Hi,

I think it might have been a while since you checked as 'Microsoft
Virtual PC':

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pro...c/default.mspx

Runs Ubuntu under a Vista machine I've got here. I've also tested it
with DSL and Debian (Etch), and they all ran just fine.

Microsoft Virtual PC is also completely 'free' as in 'free' download but
not free speech; at least you aren't required to pay.

--
Regards,
Sheridan Hutchinson
Sheridan@Shezza.org

jasee

Sheridan Hutchinson wrote:
> jasee wrote:
>> You can't run any linux distros on any of Ms's virtual machines.
>
> Hi,
>
> I think it might have been a while since you checked as 'Microsoft
> Virtual PC':
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pro...c/default.mspx
>
> Runs Ubuntu under a Vista machine I've got here. I've also tested it
> with DSL and Debian (Etch), and they all ran just fine.
>
> Microsoft Virtual PC is also completely 'free' as in 'free' download
> but not free speech; at least you aren't required to pay.

Yes, thanks I knew it was free, I had a brief look to check before I posted
but I didn't notice that thanks. I have used it about a year ago (long with
other MS free offerings) at that time it didn't support any linux distos.
Sorry about that. My apologies to the OP.

Neil Ellwood

Gordon wrote:

> A genuine question:
> Which is safer, to install linux, and run XP in a virtual machine (I
> have Office 2007 which AFAIK won't run in WINE yet) or to keep my
> current installation of XP and Office 2007 and run Linux in a
> virtual machine for browsing, newsgroups etc?
> If the latter, can someone point me to some info as to what distros
> will run in Virtual PC 2007?
>
> ta!
Dual boot. Most people I have met that use linux do and have no
problems.


--
Neil
reverse ra and delete l
Linux user 335851

Chris

jasee wrote:
> "alexd" <troffasky@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1212241.CnMgbo29vL@ale.cx...
>> Gordon wrote:
>> Windows inside Linux. Windows is more at risk from the internet than Linux
>> is, so deny Windows access to the internet. Also, you'll be able to
>> conserve resources by shutting down the Windows VM when you don't want to
>> use Office.
>
> Yes, agreed, however the virtual machine will run slower.

True, but if you've got enough RAM (at least 1Gb) then the speed issue
isn't a problem for just running Office.

> Also if it's XP or
> Vista you may have a licencing problem if you've already 'used' your
> licence.

That shouldn't be a problem. You just need to contact MS to
re-authenticate your licence.

A bigger problem is that only certain versions of Vista (ultimate and
Enterprise) are allowed to be used in a VM. XP doesn't have these
restrictions.

Geoffrey Clements

"Neil Ellwood" <cral.elllwood@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:8vedneL4lPVxpdDanZ2dnUVZ8vSdnZ2d@bt.com...
> Gordon wrote:
>
>> A genuine question:
>> Which is safer, to install linux, and run XP in a virtual machine (I
>> have Office 2007 which AFAIK won't run in WINE yet) or to keep my
>> current installation of XP and Office 2007 and run Linux in a
>> virtual machine for browsing, newsgroups etc?
>> If the latter, can someone point me to some info as to what distros
>> will run in Virtual PC 2007?
>>
>> ta!
> Dual boot. Most people I have met that use linux do and have no
> problems.
>

Indeed, I started that way and still have Windows on another drive in my PC
however in the last year I gave qemu a try and I think that's the way to go
mainly because the windows virtual machine lives in one or two files which
means I can upgrade my machine or even move or copy Windows to another
machine without re-installing Windows; the operation is just about moving
files around.

If, however, you want to play games on Windows then qemu won't be fast
enough - at least it appears that way, I haven't actually tried to run any
games on it. Also running a virtual machine takes more memory than dual
booting but it is nice to be able to switch Windows on and off without
rebooting the PC.

--
Geoff