Emulation

Andrew Kelly akelly at transparency.org
Mon May 17 07:25:23 UTC 2004


On Sat, 2004-05-15 at 00:50, Rick Stevens wrote:
> Waldher, Travis R wrote:
> >>-----Original Message-----
> >>From: Rick Stevens [mailto:rstevens at vitalstream.com] 
> >>Sent: Friday, May 14, 2004 2:45 PM
> >>To: Getting started with Red Hat Linux
> >>Subject: Re: Emulation
> >>
> >>"vmware" is a commercial product which allows you to run 
> >>Windows and Linux in two virtual machines simultaneously.
> > 
> > 
> > More than 2 though, last I was using it, I had 5 VMWARE virtual machines
> > running.  All talking ontheir own private emulated network and test
> > environment. Yes.. I know.. I'm a dork.
> 
> (no comment on the last tidbit :-D )
> 
> And you're not limited to some Windows variant and Linux...there's lots
> of OSes that vmware supports.  I don't own it or have a lot of
> experience with it, but on most accounts it works pretty well.
> 
> win4lin works, but there are memory limits on the Windows session (I
> think it's 256MB in the current release) and you need a tweaked kernel
> for it.  They (Netraverse) do a pretty good job of having ready-to-go
> downloadable kernels, but they're not current with the latest ones.  If
> you want the absolute latest kernel, you need to patch the source and
> build it yourself.  Not a horrible job, but not one for amateurs or the
> faint of heart.

FWIW, I can more or less 'vouch' for this one, with the caveats that
Rick has listed. It's head and shoulders above wine and a very
reasonable alternative to the more capable (but more expensive) vmware
products. 
The memory issues are minimal unless you're intentions are to run
windows as your primary OS sitting on the penguin, rather that just
occasionally running an app. 'Course, if that's you tack, you might as
well just sign up with aol and quit pretending to be what you're not,
right? 
:-)

Sorry, couldn't resist.

The weakness of Win4Lin seems not to be memory so much, (although I have
a bone about paging) as it does rudeness with the processor. It's kind
of like the Rootin' Tootin' Chicken Hawk that thinks it bigger and
tougher than it is. It seems to stay within the memory you give it, but
when it wants the CPU it doesn't understand nice and reaches for it all.
It tends to turn a P IV 3 GHz into much much less at times.


> And yes, I know.  I'm a gigadork (actually, I prefer "teranerd").

Petaspas?

Andy





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