Ubuntu and VMWare
Well, now that I’m on holidays, I’ve had some time to complete some unfinished business. Something that I wanted to do was compare Ubuntu 7.10 running under Microsoft’s Virtual PC with the same version running under VMWare. Firstly, I had to download VMWare’s Ubuntu, another 600+Mb marathon, and after that it was smooth sailing. Unlike Virtual PC, there was no problem connecting to the Internet via Firefox (using Wi-Fi) and downloading 153 update files. That took a while but all the updates installed without difficulty and now I’m composing this blog using Ubuntu running on my Virtual Machine.
Under Virtual PC, I couldn’t connect to the Internet at all and there was no USB support. In VMWare, there is USB support and it works. I inserted a memory stick and transferred a PowerPoint file (.ppt format) to the desktop. I then opened it using Open Office. I haven’t succeeded in copying a file from Ubuntu to the memory stick however, but I’ll work on that. The important thing is that having Internet connectivity and USB support makes you feel like you really do have another PC.
Switching between Vista and Ubuntu is easy. Ctrl+Alt takes you out of Ubuntu and Ctrl+G brings you back in. It’s as simple as that. The other thing about Virtual PC is that it only works on the more expensive versions of Vista, like the Business and Ultimate editions, which would be annoying if you had one of the other “lesser” versions. All in all, there’s no contest between which is the better implementation. VMWare wins hands down.
Of course, all this is only possible if you have plenty of RAM. The VMWare Ubuntu Virtual Machine requires 512Mb but as I’ve got 2048Mb on my laptop, I’m OK.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Microsoft, opensource, ubuntu, Virtual PC, virtualmachine, VMWare, VPC
