[thelist] [thelist]Multiple OS/Virtual PC

MRC webmaster at equilon-mrc.com
Mon Nov 26 14:10:18 CST 2001


Adam (or .yo. ?),

> Who on this list is using "virtual pc" to test multiple OSs on a single
> machine. and who thinks it's better than purchasing a mega HD and
> partitioning it, installing the different OSs that way?

    I use VMware Workstation 3.0 [1], not so much to run multiple OSes
(although I do use it to run a mix of Win32 OSes, and occasionally Linux),
but primarily to run various versions of IE and other browsers. Since
multiple versions of IE typically will not coexist, having a separate VM
session for each version is ideal. I also create VMs to test beta software,
to avoid polluting my primary development PC.
    A few big advantages of running VMs over creating multiple bootable
partitions are:

1) The number of VMs you create is limited only by available disk space
2) You can run multiple VMs simultaneously, limited only by available RAM
3) You can create a base install of an OS (much like an image) that you can
easily copy and reuse. No need to reformat and reinstall an OS.
4) VMware allows you to choose whether or not to apply or discard changes
made to your VM within the last session. Installed some software into the VM
that crashed the OS? Just discard the changes and you're back where you
started.

    The two rules of thumb for running VM software such as VMware: 1) as
much disk space as possible, and 2) as much RAM as possible. Also, in my
experience VMware is *extremely* stable -- amazingly so.

James Aylard

1. http://www.vmware.com/products/desktop/ws_features.html





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