Virtualization - Emulating the Operating Systems

[Yoon]

Want to try out a different operating system like Linux or Windows (with near full features) without having to format your computer? Virtualization is the answer. There are two virtualization software that are freely available to download: VMware VMplayer and Microsoft Virtual PC 2007.

VMplayer: www.vmware.com/products/player/
Virtual PC 2007: www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx

The only thing you require is a Windows or Linux CD/DVD/ISO to install the operating system and a fairly recent system with enough RAM.

What's nice about these two products is that you can use the virtualized OS along with your host OS, kind of like having the ability to use two computers on one screen. Another nice feature is that you can easily get rid of the virtualized OS, since it keeps it all in a single directory.

Since most of the Linux distributions are freely available, these two virtualization software make it quite easy to test out these distributions. It also gives you the ability to use the full features of Linux distros that aren't available in the LiveCD modes. I'm currently running Ubuntu in VMplayer to use some Linux software that isn't available on Windows.

I also did play around with Windows 98 in VMplayer, for nostalgic purposes. With all the classic BSODs that showed up frequently in Windows 95/98/ME, it makes you realize how much more stable Windows 2000/XP is over the Windows 9X series.

[Jaegar]

Nifty links. I'd heard about that sort of thing and was kinda curious about it. Now I know where to get software for it.

Someone I talked to the other week said they ran Mac OS X, Windows XP, and Vista all on the same computer at their tech support job. It sounds like fun to me XD

[Tarquin]

Actually, I would love VMWare on a Mac. Then i get both windows and linux without having to reboot =P

[Yoon]

tarquin said:

Actually, I would love VMWare on a Mac. Then i get both windows and linux without having to reboot =P

For Mac OSX, there are two popular virtualization software available:

VMware Fusion: www.vmware.com/products/fusion/
Parallels for Mac: www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/

Both VMware Fusion and Parallels for Mac seem to run really well on OS X. Both have features called "Unity" and "Coherence", which allow Windows windows and OSX windows to intermix seamlessly, as if they were all running on a single operating system.

I hear that VMware Fusion also has basic 3D support and will run some DirectX 7/8 apps/games at an acceptable speed.

[Tarquin]

OMG, gaming too! Thats it, I HAVE TO HAVE IT *goes into frenzy*.
The ONLY reason I hesitate on planning to get a Mac is that not all games work on it. I mean, I realise that its probably not gonna be all that good performance, but it still makes me drool xD

[Yoon]

Gaming with VMware Fusion

VMware Fusion now has experimental support for DirectX 9.0 3-D graphics (without shader support) to enable more Microsoft Windows 3-D applications and games to run. This will allow for many new games to run in VMware Fusion that could not be previously run. However, if a game requires shaders it may not run at all. Games that provide the ability to run without shaders can potentially run in VMware Fusion 1.1.

VMware Fusion does not support 3-D acceleration in Unity view. For 3-D applications, use Single Window or Full Screen view.

Customizing the virtual machine's mouse settings for playing games
Most games require some custom mouse settings to work correctly. These settings lock the mouse to the virtual machine when you are running a game. Note: These settings will affect the acceleration setting of the mouse, and disable the ability to automatically move the mouse between the virtual machine and your Mac. The setting in the user's preference file will also prevent the use of the drag-and-drop feature from all virtual machines to the host machine. Remove the settings to revert back to default behavior.

To customize the virtual machine's mouse settings for playing games, use TextEdit to make the following changes while the virtual machine is powered off:

* In the virtual machine directory, add the following line to the end of the virtual machine's configuration (.vmx) file:
vmmouse.present = "FALSE"
* In your home directory, add the following line to the end of the file ~/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/preferences:
pref.motionUngrab = "FALSE"

These configuration settings do not take effect until you shut down the virtual machine, quit VMware Fusion, and then restart VMware Fusion and the virtual machine.
Note: The configuration file setting vmmouse.present = "FALSE" and the preference file setting pref.motionUngrab = "FALSE" are incompatible with Unity view. To use Unity view, change the configuration file settings for vmmouse.present and pref.motionUngrab to "TRUE" or delete the lines from the configuration file.

Also Note: When you edit a virtual machine's configuration (.vmx) file, if you copy and paste text from a browser into the file using TextEdit, VMware Fusion might be unable to open the resulting .vmx file, because some applications (like Firefox) add legacy Mac characters (carriage returns) at the end of each line. This release of VMware Fusion requires Mac OS X characters (line feeds) at the end of each line, and cannot understand legacy Mac characters. To work around this problem, convert the legacy end-of-line characters in the .vmx file to Mac OS X end-of-line characters:

1. Open Terminal from /Applications/Utilities.
2. Type
nano "~/Virtual Machines/vm-dir/vm-name.vmx"
where vm-dir and vm-name are the path and name of your .vmx file, and press Enter.
3. When nano loads, type Control-O, and press Enter. This converts the legacy end-of-line characters to Mac OS X end-of-line characters.
4. Type Control-X to exit.

Source: www.vmware.com/support/fusion/doc/releasenotes_fusion.html

Looks like they've added DX9 support in the recent update, although any games that use shaders (nearly all new DX9 games use shaders) will probably won't work.