[gentoo-amd64] Re: Virtualization/WinXP

[Nikos Chantziaras <realnc@arcor.de>]

On 01/26/2010 09:55 PM, Mark Knecht wrote:
> Hi,
>     OK - with the new machine up and running well enough to do some
> work I really need to get some sort of virtualization going to see if
> I can get around the fact that XP cannot be installed on this machine.
> (at least not easily) I need to run TradeStation and I'd like to try
> under Linux but Wine is ABSOLUTELY not an option.
>
>     I ran XP&  TS on my older system (5 year old 3GHz AMD64)  but it's
> been a long time since I tried it. The performance was just OK. I
> expect this machine may be acceptable.
>
>     To anyone familiar with this subject a few questions:
>
> 1) If I go the VMWare route is it vmware-workstation that I want?

Yea, but the version in portage in a bit outdated.  Current is 7.x while 
portage has up to 6.5.

Note that workstation is not free (beer or otherwise.)  VMWare Server is 
free (beer), but last time I looked, it's not as good as Workstation.

VirtualBox is free (there's free beer version and free speech version too.)

All of the above are able to run XP, Vista and 7.  VMWare Workstation is 
the fastest (it runs the 64-bit version of Windows 7 at pretty much 
native speed here; I can compare because I have W7 also installed for 
real; I'm on a Gentoo/W7 dual boot system.)


> 2) Are there any prebuilt XP images that would save me the hassle of
> installing Win XP and just allow me to validate with my existing keys?

Illegally created ones, yes.


> Is this the purpose of vmware-player? (which doesn't seem to have
> fetch restrictions...)

VMWare Player is free (beer) is a cut-down version of Workstation.  I 
find it sucks because of the limited amount of configuration options and 
crappy GUI.


> 3) In some ways the most important question is what are the Open
> Source alternatives and how easy are they to set up?

VirtualBox.  Not as fast as VMWare, but should be fast enough.