[Wylug-help] Which distro?

[A J Cole]

>On 4 August 2011 20:28, A J Cole <ajcole at ajcole.org> wrote:
>
>> Hope this may still be some use ...
>>
><snip>
>
>> Whatever distribution you go for I would strongly suggest virtualising
>> the existing XP system.  I have been using VMware Creator for this very
>> purpose for years to virtualise NT, XP and Vista iron before recycling.
>> Conversion to VBox isn't too difficult.
>>
>
>Whoa! That seems like a really useful tool, as I'm about to convert my work
>machine to Linux so I can work faster, but there are rumblings afoot about
>what might happen if I'm not using Outlook for calendar sharing etc.

Familiar problem....

>I'm assuming you mean VMware vCenter Converter as I can't find anything
>apart from loads and loads of "try our distro in vmware with our vmware
>creator tool" when I search for VMware Creator?  If not, care to share a
>url?

***** Oops ... as I just replied to my original posting - for "VMware
Creator" please read "VMware Converter".

Welcome to the recent history of Vmware.  For most of the nineties they
were just into technology.  I have been using VMware Workstation since
the mid-perhaps-earlier nineties.  Spinners/branders now appear to be in
control and I don't keep up with their current product naming or specs.
I would guess that VMware vCenter Converter is a direct rebrand of VMware
Converter to "match" with vCenter.  The earliest dated Vmware-converter
in my archive is from 2008 which seems a bit recent!

If you are going to try this route I suggest that you work bacwards.

First make certain that you have a viable VMware server for your
chosen distro.  I mainly use VMware-server-2.x on Fedora but that has
necessiated some fiddling with the source code of the modules thropugh
kernel changes also the need to run a very old FireFox on Linux or MS
(or any IE) to match the plugin.

If you fight your way through the VMware site you might find that there
is still a long term freeware release of the server.  Last time I looked
(end of last year) for someone upgrading an XP box to a faster one there
was a current VMware Server (for XP) still availble.  It saved all sorts
of hearaches (heavt photo-processing software) being able to run the
old XP image virtually on the new XP box.

As for the conversion - its rather simple if resource hungry - unless they
have slimmed down the targets menue you also need to take care that you
virtualise to the correct VMware version and they have a myriad on names.

My advice would be to partially reorganise the PC before conversion
(although I have run a 70+GB virtual image and sorted that out virtually
- remember that the occupied PC localdisk will be within the image).
I always find it easier to virtualise to a network share - certainly in
the past its been unusual to find enough local space).

Andrew

ps. One would think that there might be a viable conversion route from
    a full Ghost image.

    Conversion to Virtual Box might now be easier.  I *think* I saw VMware
    image importing mentioned in relation to the fairly recent VB release.