[ILUG] VMware alternatives.

[Paul Jakma]

On Sun, 7 Nov 2004, Dale Dunlea wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> I run an XP laptop and I have a linux based product that I want to 
> be able to demo on it.

Surely the obvious answer is "install Linux"?

> 1. Run VMware, or if anyone can point me in the right direction, a 
> free alternative that runs on windows. Install the Linux system on 
> VMware and run it from there. This seems like the easiest and 
> safest way of doing things.

There is qemu, which wont be as fast as VMWare, but often is fast 
enough. You'd have to run Windows under qemu on Linux though.

> 2. Repartition my laptop for a dual-boot setup. Not quite as safe 
> as the first option, and requeires an amount of work to safely 
> repartition. Yes, I have my data backed up, but I still would 
> rather avoid the risk of hosing my system and having to reinstall 
> XP and all of the (many) apps I have installed on it.

If your XP partition(s) are VFAT (no idea what XP uses), you can CD 
boot or network boot Linux, mount those partitions and backup your 
windows filesystem in their entirety to a network host, then 
repartition, install Linux and restore your windows fs as-it-was when 
you first boot Linux. (added benefit that you wont have windows 
reinstalling the MBR on you if you install windows.. and you'll have 
a 'snapshot' of your windows host to make your next-reinstall of 
Windows less painful).

> 3. Make a Live CD that can boot my designer system. I can then demo 
> this on my laptop, or indeed any other computer that happens to be 
> lying around. Cons to this include the learning curve in building a 
> Live CD, and also having to go out and get me a few re-writeable 
> CDs to make it less expensive to release incremental improvements 
> to the demo product.

This can be a lot of work. If previous suggestion sounds easy to you, 
then this might be an option too.

> What does the combined wisdom of the ILUG suggest as the best means to
> go forward?

Backup your program~1 directory, install Linux, use Wine to run the 
few apps you might have that dont have Linux equivalents ;)

regards,
-- 
Paul Jakma	paul at clubi.ie	paul at jakma.org	Key ID: 64A2FF6A
Fortune:
"I have to convince you, or at least snow you ..."
 		-- Prof. Romas Aleliunas, CS 435