Windows in VMware?

[hizaguchi]

So I got this new laptop and it came with Windows Media Center. I'd like to install come CAD software since I've got a Windows license, and I also might take advantage of the OS to play some games. Problem is, I enjoy not getting viruses and spyware, and I don't really want to reboot into Windows every time I want to use it.

My solution is to install XP in something like VMware and then run it there in a window when I need it for something. This way I don't have to worry about updates or internet related stuff at all because I can just keep it cut off from the outside world.

So anybody running Windows XP in a virtual machine? How is the performance for doing heavy stuff like gaming or CAD? I've got a gig of DDR2 and a Turion 64 X2... would I be able to run heavy apps well or should I just try to use Wine?

[G Morgan]

The performance is great if you allocate 512MB of RAM and install VMware Tools. The VMware Player doesn't have the option for this but Workstation does and I think Server does.

Without VMware Tools its unusable.

A tip would be to setup Samba on the host machine then you can share files between the host and the guest with ease.

[Kindred]

I believe vmware still requires you to use its own display driver, without any kind of 3D performance at all. It's fine for 2D stuff though, I used to use it for photoshop and it worked pretty well.

[Virogenesis]

can you boot off of usb because a usb pen distro might be better as vmware does suck for games and what have you.

[hizaguchi]

Ah, I totally forgot about the 3D performance. I may have to try Cedega then.

[mips]

Use VMWare server, it's free like the plaer but not opensource.

[hizaguchi]

Does it handle 3D acceleration?

[mips]

I honestly don't know. But i did a little googling and found this:

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa;jsessionid=8AA5C9B8858BE3511F42BD0F0AB C7558?messageID=328065&#328065
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-84344.html

[e00878]

Thanks! Work's graet. Now I can run AutoCAD 2006 fluently.;)

[AndyCooll]

Does it handle 3D acceleration?

No. For gaming (and other graphics card intensive tasks) VMware is not the answer to your problems. For most other things VMware is fine though. I play FM on it, and since this is a number crunching game rather than graphics intensive it runs great.

:cool:

[hasimir44]

Has anyone tried qemu w/ the accelerator (http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/)? I was reading about it in a magazine a couple of days ago. The website boasts "near native speeds" and has apparently beaten VMWare in different benchmarking tests.

The qemu accelerator is closed source, but free to download.