VMware or Dual Boot?
 

Several months ago, I installed SuSE 7.1 successfully on my 30 GB harddrive, but never did get Lilo to work properly. Linux has a 15 GB partition, and Win98 has a 15 GB partition. The only way I can access the Linux OS is to use the boot disc. I have read the manuals many times over, installed Lilo to the MBR using Yast2 quite a few times, and just don't see what I'm not doing correctly.
Recently, I read of a new software package called VMware, which allows Windows to run as a second computer inside a Linux host. Claims include no need for dual booters, etc. Has anyone used this or a comparable product? If so, is it preferable to dual booting, or should I look for something like Partition Magic? I'd REALLY like to be able to use either system without the boot disc.

Ron :confused:

Depends what you want to do with it. VMWare works quite nicely if you need Windows applications while you are working in Linux. It isn't great if you to use Windows to play games and do multimedia stuff (e.g. watch videos).

Be warned - you need a pretty chunky system to use VMWare - I wouldn't even consider it without 128MB of RAM and a 700 MHz CPU.

you might want to consider Win4Lin, it is a emulator kind of, that runs Windows 98, NT.. etc, as a process in Linux in which I have also heard it isn't as much as a hog as VMware is... VMWare even with a suped up system can still hog your resources and slow everything down, well from my experience.

Ummm, processor isnt so important with vmware as much as ram is. id say the minimum for decent performance would be a 400mhz processor with 256mb ram, but with ram so cheap these days that is not such a big ask. The upside is, although the full version work station is expensive, you can download free fully functioning demos from their website. The full version (not lite) will run basically any majoy i386 os. dos/win3.1, windows 95/8, nt4/2000, windowsxp, bsds, and you can even run linux within linux (although the website warns against any more recursion i.e linux within linux within linux..lol).

However, it is a slow bitch and it can get annoying. its highly compatible and is more likely to run all your apps when compared to win4lin. an annoying bug in ver2.x of it is that you cant run fullscreen when running xfree86 4.x, only 3.x. im not sure if this has been fixed in version 3.

Onto win4lin. this is the most amazing piece of compatiblility/emulation software i have ever some across and is well worth the price tag. it only support windows 95/98, as it needs an OS with a DOS core to be able to run. its a little harder to setup than vmware, but if you have a mainstream commercial distro this wont be an issue. debian and slackware users can still use this software (i have personally got it to run using both) but it is unsupported s youll be on your own.

But let me just say this. Win4Lin is *FAST*. windows opens and shutdowns are faster than windows by itself, and the over performance loss is around 5-15 percent, which really isnt anything. It will work with almost all software barring those that are heavily dependant on directx, and it is a joy to use.

buy this software. their support is also excellent and you will recieve promt email help.

With regards to Win4Lin, I totally agree.
Runs well on my "old girl"..... p2 350 and up until yesterday, 128MB RAM.
My duel booting days are over, unless I get the urge for a game or two.
Used mainly for MS Office, which I must have :(

Well worth the money I think.

Wazza

I'd like to put my meazely two cents in:

Again I must agree with an earlier reply, it depends on what you are going to do with Windoze...

I have LILO and VMWare running, I only have 128 meg Ram, and Windoze 98 is using only 48 meg Ram, but you can tweak it if need be, but RAM is cheap (which has already been mention), I use it at work, cuz our in house software is UNIX, but does NOT support a Linux GUI, so it's back to windoze for that..it did take abit of configuring at the start (which i wasn't use to) but it works well enough for me, now my Windoze is on another drive... Don't know if I've helped OR made things confusing..but it's just my measely two cents......

If I were you I'd steer away from using VMWare or other emulators. You'll get better performance from Windows if you run it natively rather than within a process.

Try installing Lilo manually from source using the command prompt. Post us a copy of both the lilo.conf file you want to use and your fstab file. Lilo isn't usually that much of a b**** to install and use, so I'd give it one more try.