PaulSpoerry.com

The Inquirer is running an article titled “XP Mode in Windows 7 is a scam“. The article describes how running in XP Mode won’t do what you think it will do. The major gripe is that perhipherals will need to be virtualized. Those virtualized perhipherals will be a subset of virtual hardware devices that look like those in an older, generic PC – basically a lowest common denominator version of a NIC, SATA controller, sound card and GPU. It then goes on to say how you won’t be able to “play games”, etc.

Let me first say, “no shit Sherlock”. The intentional behind XP Mode is NOT to run a full blown computer in a computer. The author entirely misses the point of virtualization. The virtualization provided by XP Mode isn’t the same as a high end enterprise version VMWare product on data center grade hardware. The entire intention of XP Mode is to allow business that have legacy applications that may or may not run on Windows 7 (or Vista for that matter) to have an environment that their applications can safely run in… a Windows XP virtual machine.

The author goes on to rail on how applications won’t run at a “tolerable speed” and generally dismisses it as useless. XP Mode is not intended to run 3D gaming applications; it isn’t meant for software that needs hardware acceleration. This is meant for ease the upgrade path of businesses, most importantly for those that will enjoy the migration to a 64-bit OS, which incidentally has absolutely no support for 16-bit applications. Even if you still HAVE a 16 bit application laying around (and seriously, if you do… upgrade or find a replacement)  none of those programs will have any need for blistering fast 3d performance!

VMware has finally decided to open-source its client for virtual desktops, releasing it under the LGPL. This was in response to intense pressure from the growing number of Linux distros that include virtualization by default. From the post:

The CEO replacement who entered VMware last year was Paul Maritz, a long-time Microsoft executive with intimate familiarity with how Windows swallowed up entire categories of utility software as it grew up by simply wrapping free utilities into the operating system. Paul knows about that, and he had to have seen last year the dual threats to VMware of open source virtualization offerings and virtualization on board in operating systems. The VMware View Open Client allows businesses to host virtualized desktops in the data center, and users can access their desktops from any device. Going with an open source solution like this was VMware’s only choice, especially as Microsoft includes Hyper-V virtualization in Windows Server. I’m sure Maritz was very focused on the Microsoft threat, because he used to be behind similar threats. VMware can grab market share with this move, stave off Microsoft’s dominance, and offer support and services around its open source offering.’

You can get VMware View Open Client here, licensed under the Lesser GPL. It’s essentially a bet that customized user desktops are hosted in data centers, and that businesses will take to the idea that they can save money by centralizing custom solutions in data centers for desktop users to take advantage of through virtualization.

Ubuntu would be neat to try, but for many of us, having to leave Windows and boot into a whole different operating system is a full day project.

Nerdbusiness created this tutorial. So you don’t have to leave Windows to try ubuntu. I’ll be showing you how to setup a “virtual machine” inside Windows that will run Ubuntu inside a tidy little window. So you can launch it from the Start Bar. And have Ubuntu running in the background just like any other Windows program like the internet browser or your game of solitaire.

 Having Ubuntu running inside Windows is just cool. Plus, it's a great way to try out all of Ubuntu's features

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