New computer, seek VM advice

gary.turner
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Well, I finally broke down and got a new box. (dual core, 2.3mHz 4gB) All I can say about Vista is what the ... were they thinking? At least I don't experience the slowness some have reported. It's nearly as fast as Win98 on a PIII, 733mHz, 128mB box, but not nearly as quick as Linux on the same box. ;P

Love the 24" flat display, and wish I could have got the 30", but 1920×1200 is a nice size, too.

Now I really hate to waste this much machine on Windows, but need to have it. IE7 and Firefox3 won't run on my old win98. I'd like to go the virtual machine route. Now I've seen lots on Mac + Win, Mac + Linux and Win + Linux, but not Linux + Win; at least not in any helpful detail. Has anyone here tried running Windows on Linux? Point me to something?

cheers,

gary

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Phreestyle
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Hi Gary,

Hi Gary,

32 or 64 bit?

VM Ware runs on Linux. Link is here http://www.vmware.com/support/ws4/doc/install_linux_ws.html

or you could dual boot.

cheers,

Life's a journey. Enjoy the trip.

Hugo
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Oh indeed! build a linux box

Oh indeed! build a linux box vmware it and run windows on that as a VM, We have just got through hiring a linux network wizard to help us build or rebuild our small but vital development network with at it's core a Dell Powerdge Xeon server as we had a requirement for two networks he suggested VN setup and further he suggested that he install Linux on the server and rebuild our Windows 2003 server on top of that, this linux box now also takes care of all routing and firewalling relieving the underpowerd buggy modem/router of some of it's workload, there were teething problems and it took a while to settle down in respect of DHCP and DNS in general but that was more a problem manifested by the windows server.

Vista is a whole lot of very serious pain, really, honestly I can't stress that enough , it simply should not be used in any serious work environment, many people are starting to unearth all sorts of nasty deep rooted problems with it and it seems to be turning out to b far worst than XP when first released.

Congrats on the new machine, I too am working at the moment on my new 2.33 4gig box and it's so fast it's makes me grin so much that I'm building another using the core duo 3.0 and on that I'm going to install 64bit windows server from the freebies we get in the MS action packs along with Linux 64bit I'll cram that with around 8Gig of ram and really see what it can do.

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Tyssen
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Hugo wrote:Vista is a whole

Hugo wrote:
Vista is a whole lot of very serious pain, really, honestly I can't stress that enough , it simply should not be used in any serious work environment, many people are starting to unearth all sorts of nasty deep rooted problems with it and it seems to be turning out to b far worst than XP when first released.

I've not had that much trouble with it; once I workd out I should turn off the Aero effects.

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Tyssen wrote:Hugo

Tyssen wrote:
Hugo wrote:
Vista is a whole lot of very serious pain

I've not had that much trouble with it; once I workd out I should turn off the Aero effects.

My laptop came with Vista and I decided to leave it on. But it also came with the latest version of Norton and that really messed things up until I got rid of that along with the Aero stuff.

If I could just get it to stop warning me that my firewall is turned off! I know it's turned off dammit - I did that myself because my router has it's own built in firewall that does just fine, thanks.

I could change my plea to guilty,
but I don't think it would stick.

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gary.turner
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It seems like Vista tries to

It seems like Vista tries to make things harder to do. My lan uses static IPs, and Vista makes it very hard to find your way to the network setup. Even as super user, it wouldn't let me save a hosts file to c:\windows\. I had to save it to the admin doc folder, then copy it to the windows folder. Then it wanted me to verify with password every step. And, I was already logged in as the admin. Then, it didn't help that I had to install an ap and reboot (one of MS's stupidest pet tricks). For some reason, that reset all the networking configs, so I had no connectivity. Then try to find that hidden config window again, huh!

Do businesses really function using this crap?

Now, someone tell me all about Aero.

cheers,

gary

A pianist who has learned the wrong system of fingering cannot become a virtuoso until he has laboriously taught himself the proper method.

My site is slo-o-owly being reconstructed; visit anyway.

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gary.turner wrote:Now,

gary.turner wrote:
Now, someone tell me all about Aero.

It makes your windows go slightly transparent when you drag them and other similar kind of stuff but it seems that it soaks up RAM so I turned it off. It's under Control Panel / Personalisation / Appearance / Effects / Show shadows, window contents while dragging.

You should be able to turn off the constant verification too.

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Hugo
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Gary you might have

Gary you might have technically been logged in a Admin but vista attempts to get a little closer to the unix/linux model(requiring verification that the user does have required privalages) in it's use of UAC (User Access Control) which with default enabled will not even allow a simple 'ipconfig' You can 'turn' this feature off as I have done and that will prevent this annoyance; However I have recently read that this is perhaps not a great idea as some people are of the belief that this causes unspecified and quirky problems to arise. What isn't apparent is that there is a hidden super admin user that one can enable how To here

No businesses are going to really really struggle to work with Vista and shouldn't attempt to, it causes too much lost time, it's a disgrace that they think they can get away with releasing something in this state; in fairness the system has many features that suggest a more serious take on aspects such as 'users', 'security' etc it's just that nothing along those lines seems to work without being decidedly quirky, this might be amusing in a home environment but in a network office environment especially one that is geared towards web development it's an absolute nightmare at times.

Aero can be turned off or even selectively tuned and it does seem to cause much slowness and soaks up a lot of memory, but it's odd having to turn it off as it's such a triumphal feature for Vista Smiling

My other big issue is that my workstation is very busy, I never power down, or hibernate as I need my machine straight away with all my programs in the state they were, I also RDC over VPN to the network including my desktop as well as development servers, problem is that Vista simply crawls to an unworkable halt forcing reboots every three-ish days, this in itself is particularly irksome.

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