[ltp] [Slightly OT] : VMware.

[Crispin Cowan]

sylvestre meininger wrote:

> I just read Michael Geary's post about VMware on the TP Mailing LIst and I
> have a rather simple question :
> The correct version of VMware will enable you to use Windows software under
> Linux. But do you actually need to have a MS operating system installed
> somewhere ? Or is VMware a true emulator ?

No, you do not need a real Windows install on the hardware:  VMWare is a true
emulator.  I have VMWare installed, using a 500 MB virtual drive, and run NT
4.0 SP6 on top of that.  I use it daily for access to MS Office and Adobe
Frame Maker on my otherwise Linux TP 770.

You *can* get VMWare to actually access & use a Windows install on the native
hardware, but it is tricky.  The trick is that the VMWare emulator presents
different hardware than the native hardware does, and so you need to use a
Windows feature that (I'm told) is called "profiles" that lets Windows boot
different hardware.  I don't understand this, and don't use it, so don't ask
me how to do it :-)


> Second, I heard something about another "emulator" which, from what I
> understood, was free. Does anything like this actually exist ?

That would be Plex86  http://www.plex86.org/ previously known as "Freemware"
:-)

Crispin

--
Crispin Cowan, Ph.D.
Chief Scientist, WireX Communications, Inc. http://wirex.com
Security Hardened Linux Distribution:       http://immunix.org


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