shasan
July 8th, 2009, 12:39 AM
Hello! I hate to ask a question like this on a public forum, but I hope that someone with actual experience in this area will be able to advise me well. I have spent a significant amount of time investigating this and searching on my own, but I am still a bit confused about virtualization options available for Ubuntu.
So. I'm currently running Vista and I'm kind of sick of having to run Windows as my primary OS. So, I'm planning my switch back to Linux. For various reasons, I need access to specific Windows-only apps, and I have determined that Wine will not suffice for me (please trust me on this point). I am looking for a virtualization solution that will meet the following requirements:
Run Vista Ultimate or Win7 seamlessly within an Ubuntu host desktop (a la Parallels Coherence in OSX)
Fully support (in virtualized Windows) my tablet PC's pen input (in particular: I need to be able to run OneNote as though I were using Windows).
Be able to seamlessly access files from applications on both the Ubuntu host and Windows guest
Be able to run as many Windows applications concurrently as desired (heard this was a limitation with some VM's)
Full access from Windows to all hardware resources on laptop (i.e., USB ports, network, sound (in and out). No graphics card so no worries about that! :) )
The following would be nice:
Support for displaying both Ubuntu host and Windows guest applications on multiple monitors
Free as in speech.
Free as in beer (though I absolutely do not mind shelling out cash if a proprietary solution works best).
Oh yeah, should Just Work out of the (apt-get) box.
Currently, I believe VirtualBox meets these requirements best, though I haven't seen anything about tablet support. I haven't been able to find too much about Parallels or VMWare as it relates to my specific requirements.
Even if you can't provide a 100% answer, I'd appreciate any advice you all had. I'm doing all this on a fresh hard drive so I don't have a problem trying a few times to get it working.
So. I'm currently running Vista and I'm kind of sick of having to run Windows as my primary OS. So, I'm planning my switch back to Linux. For various reasons, I need access to specific Windows-only apps, and I have determined that Wine will not suffice for me (please trust me on this point). I am looking for a virtualization solution that will meet the following requirements:
Run Vista Ultimate or Win7 seamlessly within an Ubuntu host desktop (a la Parallels Coherence in OSX)
Fully support (in virtualized Windows) my tablet PC's pen input (in particular: I need to be able to run OneNote as though I were using Windows).
Be able to seamlessly access files from applications on both the Ubuntu host and Windows guest
Be able to run as many Windows applications concurrently as desired (heard this was a limitation with some VM's)
Full access from Windows to all hardware resources on laptop (i.e., USB ports, network, sound (in and out). No graphics card so no worries about that! :) )
The following would be nice:
Support for displaying both Ubuntu host and Windows guest applications on multiple monitors
Free as in speech.
Free as in beer (though I absolutely do not mind shelling out cash if a proprietary solution works best).
Oh yeah, should Just Work out of the (apt-get) box.
Currently, I believe VirtualBox meets these requirements best, though I haven't seen anything about tablet support. I haven't been able to find too much about Parallels or VMWare as it relates to my specific requirements.
Even if you can't provide a 100% answer, I'd appreciate any advice you all had. I'm doing all this on a fresh hard drive so I don't have a problem trying a few times to get it working.