Linux Distribution For Running Windows

[pyost 0]

For those of you who might have been confused by the topic title, the right link to follow is "Virtual machine". Essentially, it allows you to create a virtual computer inside your operating system that would in no way depend on the OS itself. What can you do with something like that? For example, you can run Linux inside Windows, or the other way round. I am interested in the latter.

 

Currently, I am running Ubuntu 7.10 and use it 95% of my time. However, there are certain tasks that I am more with when performed in Windows XP - I dual boot these two operating systems. What is more, there are tasks that I cannot deal with in Linux, which is another reason why Windows XP is necessary. I use it mostly for Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Bridge (for photography), Visual Studio (I do C# programming) and Internet Explorer (as some important web sites do not work at all when opened with Firefox and Opera).

 

As I am sure you are fully aware, it is somewhat of a nuisance to restart your computer every now and then just so you could complete short tasks before restarting it again and going back to Linux. This is why the idea of a virtual machine is more than appealing. Of course, one cannot use its computer's full potential when running an operating system this way, but it works.

 

What I am asking here is what would be the best Linux distribution for doing so? I am quite keen on Ubuntu, so would not like to change it, but if another distribution uses less resources (therefore leaving more for the virtual machine) while retaining the ease of use - I might think about doing so. Ubuntu, openSUSE, Debian and Fedora are the ones that come to mind. Furthermore, which VM software should I use? I have heard of Virtual Box, but would like to know if there is a better option.

 

Previous experience from anyone who has done this is welcome

[toby 0]

Having a lighter X window system like Fluxbox or Xcfe would be most of the difference between the four you mentioned and anything lighter. They are both installable on Ubuntu. Not sure on VM for linux.

[yordan 10]

I could suggest you another way. I love using vmware virtual machines. Maybe the best way is have a look at vmware site, and download a trial vmware for linux distro, and look which distros are available (Mandrake, redhat or Ubuntu).

[Entheone 0]

I definitely am not an authority on Linux boxes, and my experience with the different distros is not all that extreme (I've only tried Debian, RedHat, Ubuntu, Mandrake, and a handful other small distributions) and so my opinion will probably be obsolete, but here goes...

 

Among the Big Players, I found Ubuntu to be the easiest on system resources, followed by Debian and Mandrake. So, if you're willing to bear with significantly less pleasurable GUIs and give up some of the software you currently use on your Ubuntu box, you could go for one of the smaller Linux distros. I hear Xubuntu ( http://xubuntu.org/ ) is a very nice and versatile distro. Fluxbuntu Linux ( http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ ) might also be a decent alternative to try, although their later versions are still largely experimental.

 

Again, I must repeat that my experimenting days with Linux ended around 3 years ago, so I'm my probably very much out of date. Today, I only use Xubuntu for general-purpose Linux usage, testing, and programming. So I hope my answer wasn't too irrelevant or inaccurate.

[xboxrulz1405241485 0]

I'm using VirtualBox on my Mac and PC. It's the universal virtualization solution in my house.xboxrulz

[yordan 10]

I'm using VirtualBox on my Mac and PC. It's the universal virtualization solution in my house.
xboxrulz

I never used VirtualBox yet. How does it work ? Does it need to be installed, like vmware ? Or can it be fired directly from an USB flashdisk ?

[wutske 0]

It works exactly as VMWare (expect that VirtualBox uses it's own format so the virtual machines aren't interchangeable), you install it, you create new virtual machines and that's it. I do prefer virtualbox over vmware because installing vmware in opensuse 11.0 was extremely difficult. It does work pretty well and is extremely stable (altough Kaspery + Windows 7 and the mex function in Matlab were able to completely crash the video driver (and the os)).

[niconico 0]

Can somebody just list a good handful of these things for me and how to use them?

[yordan 10]

Can somebody just list a good handful of these things for me and how to use them?

Please avoid this kind of one-line posts, they look like pure nonsense or spam, and admins around here hate that.If you really have a question, please ask it correctly. If your question concerns the present topic (i.e. if you are looking at a Linux distribution for running windows) please tell us which kind of "good handful" you are looking.
If you are talking about a different subject, please open your own topic, and explain us precisely what you want to do, on which material, and what you are trying to perform and what kind of help you want to obtain.

[xboxrulz1405241485 0]

Ya, I recommend VirtualBox because it's free. It's very simple and straight forward to use:

https://www.virtualbox.org/

Best of all, it's opensource =D!

xboxrulz

[toby 0]

Another option is to get other programs. You can get ie4linux or some similar program (though, I can't install IE8 onto a wine derivative), Eclipse for C, Gimpshop for Photoshop and so on.

[yordan 10]

Another option is to get other programs. You can get ie4linux or some similar program (though, I can't install IE8 onto a wine derivative), Eclipse for C, Gimpshop for Photoshop and so on.

ie4linux ? Do you personnally know this thing ? Did you use it ? In http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
they claim it's useful for test purposes. I'm afraid if something is wrong, you don't know if it's a IE6 problem or a ie4linux problem. More touchy, your site could experience IE6 problems which don't show up with ie4linux.

[ScriptDevil 0]

Virtualbox is by far the best product i have seem. Network, usb cards et. al can be configured with the click of a button. VMWare launches half-a-zillion unwanted processes and drivers. Virtualbox is much more simple and focussed.

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ is a good guide to install XP in ubuntu

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ScritpDevil

[BCD 1]

Yes virtual box is really useful for testing things and even doing some risky tasks. Like you can safely download some unknown windows stuff on ubuntu running on Virtual box. Talking about VMware and virtual box, the latter is very easy to use with wizard to setup everything easily. I once tried vmware, after installing I was clueless on how to setup, and then I didn't spend much time with it. So virtual box is the best, we can even run multiple OS simultaneously, although the max I could run was 3.

[yordan 10]

I once tried vmware, after installing I was clueless on how to setup, and then I didn't spend much time with it.

Which vmware did you try ? vmware workstation has a fully graphic environment, where you have tabs in which you choose "create a new machine". When the machine is created you click "start this machine", and you boot from CD for installing windows. Then you have the standard Windows (or Mandriva or Solaris) environment, and you shutdown using the Solaris or Crosoft commands for shutting down.