VMWare vs. Win

I am going to format my harddisks and start again from scratch with Linux replacing Win98 as my primary OS. I need to continue using Win 98 though because of various graphics and music programs for which there are no Linux replacements yet, and because I will still need access to my old files.

I have found a copy of VMWare Express on a flea market which allows me to install Win98 SE on a virtual machine.

My questions:

On a P II 300 MHz, how much slower will Win 98 inside a VMWare emulation be in comparison to a normal install of Win 98?

Are there any known compatibility issues or can I generally count on Win 98 software to run in the simulated environment?

Robin

in theoretical situations, it uses about 95% of your PC's processor power to use vmware for emulating the other os - regardless of the guest OS in the virtual machine is either running at full CPU cycles or not.

insofar that i used vmware, i did not came across any problem for emulating either OSes on both platforms (windows on linux, linux on windows,etc)

it's always a safe-go for you to try it out anyway since you got a copy

Thanks, that sounds reassuring. As hd space is not a problem I will most probably install a Win 98 for emergencies, Linux as main OS and VMWare with its own Win 98. I'd love to be rid of MS altogether but at the moment that isn't an option...

Robin

If you choose to dual-boot with 98 (which is a good idea) you can run the existing version of 98 through VMWare, the only thing you need to do is create bootable hardware profiles in 98 (very simple to do) because when it's booted in VMware it won't see any of the hardware its expecting. If you have a hardware profile for normal boot and a seperate hardware profile for booting through VMWare you'll be set.

This way you don't have to duplicate your 98 and if you install something in VMWare 98 it will be there when you boot into it normaly in vica-verca.

If you choose to upgrade to XP at any time though you can't boot a real installation of XP in VMWare, it's not supported by the current version.

That sounds very interesting! But as there is no word about that in the documentation which came along with my version of VMWare maybe this older version doesn't support this. I'll re-check, though!

How exactly would I go about creating such bootable hardware profiles?

Robin

i donno about the hardware profiles, but one thing's for sure, u got 2 os running and that's convenient

I've just started playing with VMWare (90 day license) and I'm very pleased with it. Its a lot more convenient to run Win98 in linux for the very few things I need it for (Our office uses an IE6 only website to login through the firewall and then PC-Anywhere *yuck*...)...

Now, instead of rebooting just to do 10 mins worth of work...I can just fire up VMWare and do it and then get back to playing in linux

I didn't know about the hardware profiles, although bitpicker, if you have no docs, just go to the Vmware website, they have extensive documentation available there which should apply to your version as well.

Now the only thing left is to test it on my laptop which is slightly below the minimum requirements (333 with 192 Megs of Ram rather than a 400 or 450 with 128 M of ram)...but since what I want to use it for I only need the equivalent of a 100 or 133, I HOPE it would still do the trick.

The documentation is available on the VMWare website.

All you have to do is run vmwarewizzard and choose to use an existing physical disk.

One thing to note is that when you boot it you'll be faced with the GRUB or LILO prompt, just as if you were booting your computer for real. Don't choose linux! this will cause problems and maybe make your kernel panic. It may be a good idea to set your default OS to windows. Apart from that you should be set.

To create a hardware profile go into system options in the control panel, click on the hardware tab then click on the hardware profiles button. It may be SLIGHTLY different in 98 (I'm on XP) but you can just choose to duplicate a profile and rename it. There should be a check box to set it to 'give this option everytime I boot my computer'. Make sure you check this box for both profiles.

Then boot your system in VMWare, choose the second hardware profile and let windows complain about having different hardware for a while, then when you get to a desktop install the vmware extras (drivers).

Should work.

it will be a LOT slower, a 300MHZ is really too slow.
Why don't you try dual boot??

Thanks to a Microsoft 'security' update (ha, ha) my Windows crashed for good anyway, so I have started to build the whole computer back up from scratch. BTW my VMWare (which is definitely an older version, including full documentation which has no word about choosing an existing Win) states a P166 as minimum requirement.

I'll first try to set up Win 98 within VMWare only, and if that sucks I still have space enough left for a dual boot installation.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions!

Robin