[Sussex] virtual machine software

[Trevor Marshall]

FRANK JAMES wrote:
> I have been encouraged to have a look at this subject and tried a big 
> downloaded version from Microsoft that someone had prepared for me. It 
> seemed to be a way of selling various versions of Vista and I didn't 
> spend too long on it.
> 
> I turned my attention to linux programs and found one for Debian. I had 
> some problems and looked at my laptop with Ubuntu and got into it very 
> quickly and efficiently.
> 
> Alas the key that I was given for a 15 day trial did not work so I wait 
> for another. Then I can have (I hope), a virtual Mandriva, Red Hat and 
> Fedoro to have a look at!
> 
> This may be old hat for most of you, but I found it quite interesting.


There are several virtual machine implementations for Linux, and very 
few of them need keys... even the free-as-in-beer versions.  VMware's 
VMware Server <http://www.vmware.com/products/server/>is free-as-in-beer 
  not open sourced, but works very well if the licensing works for you. 
  You'll need to register for a serial number, but it doesn't expire. 
See here <http://howtoforge.com/debian_etch_vmware_server_howto> for 
some notes on installing it on etch.

If you'd prefer an open source solution then Xen is a bit more involved 
but works pretty well - and is available from the Ubuntu repositories, 
take a look here <https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Xen> for more 
information on Xen and Ubuntu, or here <http://wiki.debian.org/Xen> for 
debian.

I've used both VMware and Xen, at home and in my work, and they both 
work fine.  There's also the Kernel Virtual Machine, or KVM, which I've 
not yet used.  That's also available for Ubuntu, see the notes here 
<https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KVM>.  For debian, KVM ins't in 
stable...

To be honest, Xen *is* more effort than VMware, but it's properly free, 
  If you just want to run a guest OS without bothering about fully- or 
para-virtualised kernels and the differences between them then I'd 
suggest VMware.  If you're willing to put in a bit more effort then Xen 
  is properly free, and is improving all the time. I can't comment on 
KVM, maybe someone else can?

Any of the above should allow you to get a guest OS running to try out.

Hope that helps,
--
Trevor Marshall