dugthemathguy
October 22nd, 2011, 06:05 PM
I just bought a nice workstation with a quad core i7 Sandy Bridge chip set and a pretty nice NVidia GPU. I am going to be doing some serious coding in Linux, but I am still attached to a few programs I use in Windows. I have a legal copy of Winodws 7, and was going to do a dual boot with Ubuntu 11 and WIn 7, but was warned about issues that can cause mayhem with dual boots and was advised to have an Ubuntu machine that runs Win 7 through VMWare. I want to make sure this is the right decision.
First can anyone describe the problems that a dual boot might cause?
I may be setting up a pretty complex software environment and don't want to have to start over if something goes wrong.
Second what are the limitations of running WIndows through VMWare?
I am concerned with performance especially for my Ubuntu programming,
but with Windows somewhat too since I use some imaging apps.
I have a pretty fast computer so I could live with my WIndows imaging apps taking some performance hit, but does anyone know how much of a hit it would be?
Also, I don't quite understand what VMWare is doing at a low level, so I wonder if running WIndows thru VMWare would interferre with things like the driver to my NVidia GPU in Windows? Will I be able to use OpenCL without anything being diferent? Will I be able to utilize the second gen Intel Sandy Bridge functionality on my CPU? What about MMX technology? What about other drivers and things like video codecs?
What about running Windows as a 64bit OS? Does that all operate exactly like a native Windows install?
Also, VMWare would be 100% free for doing this, right?
Can anyone let me know any other pros and cons I'm not thinking of and make some sort of discernment about what may be the less problematic solution?
THanks
Doug
First can anyone describe the problems that a dual boot might cause?
I may be setting up a pretty complex software environment and don't want to have to start over if something goes wrong.
Second what are the limitations of running WIndows through VMWare?
I am concerned with performance especially for my Ubuntu programming,
but with Windows somewhat too since I use some imaging apps.
I have a pretty fast computer so I could live with my WIndows imaging apps taking some performance hit, but does anyone know how much of a hit it would be?
Also, I don't quite understand what VMWare is doing at a low level, so I wonder if running WIndows thru VMWare would interferre with things like the driver to my NVidia GPU in Windows? Will I be able to use OpenCL without anything being diferent? Will I be able to utilize the second gen Intel Sandy Bridge functionality on my CPU? What about MMX technology? What about other drivers and things like video codecs?
What about running Windows as a 64bit OS? Does that all operate exactly like a native Windows install?
Also, VMWare would be 100% free for doing this, right?
Can anyone let me know any other pros and cons I'm not thinking of and make some sort of discernment about what may be the less problematic solution?
THanks
Doug