Is there a virtual machine that'll allow me to actually work my existing files? I was thinking for my next computer, instead of actually installing Windows on the hd, I could install Windows through a virtual machine. That way, I don't actually have to install Windows. Or should I just buy Windows and do a dual boot (or how many other OS I'm gonna have with it).

If the machine is grunty, and you don't intend to play demanding
games on there, qemu does a fine job of permitting that kind
of activity - qemu is opensource, and the virtual networking is
not necessarily trivial thing to set-up. If you can afford to spend
a few bucks on comfort VMWare is your tool.


Cheers,
Tink

VMware is very nice and rather easy to setup too. Has some new features that allow you to setup private networks and everything. very nice.

You still need to own a legal copy of the virtual system you will be installing though so yes you will still need to own a legal copy of Windows to legally install it.

But can I access my existing files? And can I interact with them and everything? I thought Virtual Machines existed so you didn't have to interact with your filesystem, and you could test your programs or try out a program before you actually install it. So this led me to believe it can't interact with the filesystem permanantly. Is that wrong?

Or is that what CrossOffice is for?

I'm afraid that you have a slight misconception of what
a virtual machine is ... it's running a Pseudo-PC with
its own filesystem and all inside a PC. If you want to
you can access the host systems file-system via a
"network-connection", but you'd still have to install
windows inside that virtual machine. Using CXOffice
to only use MS products under Linux is a whole different
kettle of fish ...


Cheers,
Tink

No, that was actually what I thought it was. I just needed confirmation. I had asked if VMs could access the filesystem on the comp, but that didn't make sense to me since I read VMs are really for safety if you want to test things out. It wouldn't be that much safer if you tested the thing out, but allowed interaction with the actual filesystem...

I had also looked at crossover and it said it could run Windows programs under Linux or something like that. With crossover, it seems I don't need to buy a Windows OS, right?

Could the VM and a USB device interact? If so, wouldn't I just be able to transfer files with a USB device like a 512 MB flash drive, or 20 gig hard drive?

Ok, cool. Again: the guest OS doesn't have file-system level
access to the host. SMB access (in vmware, probably can easily
be done for qemu, too) is one means of getting files from host to
guest or the other way round.

That's right. CXOffice is a commercially supported and
somewhat enhanced version of wine.

I know that VMWare can, but qemu doesn't, and I don't know
whether CXOffice does, for that matter.

But as I said, you can "network" the machines.


Cheers,
Tink

Then I guess I'll get VMware. Thanks for the info. And I'll look into the networking thing if it's better... unless you would care to share how that's done...

Basically there's a tool called VDE that allows you to
set-up virtual networks, using the tun/tap interface rather
than a physical device. Remember, to linux EVERYTHING
is a file, that holds true for physical devices as well as
for logical ones.

You set-up samba, tell it to permit connections from the
tun-interface. For qemu the emulated network-card is
then talking to whatever "listens" on the other end (your
tun) and that's it. VMWare uses the same mechanism,
it's just quite friendly to set-up (in other words, does it
all for you), but then 420 bucks is quite steep, too, and
if you spend some time reading and tinkering you can
save yourself that using qemu.

Maybe there's even a ready-made package for your
distro that does the tun-tap set-up for you?


Cheers,
Tink