virtualization

SAMSAMHA · Post by **SAMSAMHA** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 1:06 pm

hi, with all the talk about virtualization on the next cpu, I am curoius what exactly is it good for? Look at 64bit cpu, I wonder would this be just another market push rather than actual use?

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 1:26 pm

Basically it allows you do the same thing as VMware but in hardware instead of software!

You could run 2 OS's @ the same time.........

From what i have read.....there will need to be a few revisions of the tech B4 it works right and is stable..........
It's really for servers, people who do alot of programming (for different OS's) or need to test stuff in multiple enviroments......

It would be cool though to be able to ALT+TAB between Linux and Vista, with no delay or performance drop

pointreyes · Post by **pointreyes** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 3:08 pm

kenc51 wrote:It would be cool though to be able to ALT+TAB between Linux and Vista, with no delay or performance drop

I do that with Windows XP Pro 32-bit and Linux SUSE 10 64-bit on my laptop. It's great to have the ability and the proformance hit is not that much.

Other areas where virtualization is good is security. For example you can browse the Internet in a completely separate OS and if you get hit with malware, you just start over with a new virtualized session. Honeypots is great for virtualization for that very same reason. Security vulnerability scans and auditing is great as well and also protects your main OS from being hurt. And my favorite use is learning an OS while enjoying the comforts of entertainment while do so. See:

http://members.dsl-only.net/~pointreyes ... mCrazy.jpg

Oh yeah, in that picture I'm using Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition as the host and Solaris 10 as the guest. A problem with Solaris is that if you have a dual proc system (which I was using a dual Opteron on this setup) and try to simply install Solaris as it's own OS you will get hit with license fees because Sun will only allow Solaris to run one physical proc for free. Thanks to VMware, I told it to emulate only one proc.

SAMSAMHA · Post by **SAMSAMHA** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 1:20 am

so I guess it does not really bring any performance increase then (well maybe helps with those that are running at software based virtualization). Also, I guess it has no real application for average computer user then. Is it possible that software maker will take the advantage of such virtualization?

pointreyes · Post by **pointreyes** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 9:08 am

It has a very real application for the average computer user. I have games that simply will not play in XP. However, those games work just fine in a virtual session in an older OS.

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 9:17 am

pointreyes --> do you run XP in SuSe or SuSe in XP???

I noticed your screenshot of Solaris running in '03 server....have you tried VMware in *inx???

Just wondering

My main rig is down for the next while, so I'm back to "playing" with SuSe.....I'm going to see if I can get ZEN working again.........although I now have all my main progs setup (myth tv, windows codecs and wine) so I might not risk messing this system up.......It takes way to long to setup again.......

pointreyes · Post by **pointreyes** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 9:28 am

I don't have the VMware license to run in *nix. My job unfortunately entails me to know Windows more than Linux.

Fogey · Post by **Fogey** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 12:22 pm

It has a very real application for the average computer user. I have games that simply will not play in XP. However, those games work just fine in a virtual session in an older OS.

pointreyes; Does that cause you problems with running like Win 98 se and you have over 512 MB of system memory installed? I have an old machine set up with ME just for playing System Shock 2 as it won't run on XP worth a dang. Tried all the tricks, just not worth it. Had a dual boot system for a while.[XpPro/Win ME] with 512 MB System memory due to the fact anything over that amount in Win ME/98 will slow down and you'll have a performance hit, so I've read. What's your experience been?

pointreyes · Post by **pointreyes** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 3:18 pm

Fogey wrote:
It has a very real application for the average computer user. I have games that simply will not play in XP. However, those games work just fine in a virtual session in an older OS.
pointreyes; Does that cause you problems with running like Win 98 se and you have over 512 MB of system memory installed? I have an old machine set up with ME just for playing System Shock 2 as it won't run on XP worth a dang. Tried all the tricks, just not worth it. Had a dual boot system for a while.[XpPro/Win ME] with 512 MB System memory due to the fact anything over that amount in Win ME/98 will slow down and you'll have a performance hit, so I've read. What's your experience been?

With a virtualized Windows ME, it's forced to think it has 256Meg of RAM.
Myst Riven plays quite nicely on it.

And with my kids' games which require 640x480 on my 20" widescreen LCD the games actually look good. I'm actually using Windows ME on my dual Xeon with 2Gigs of RAM.