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[sassy bear]

What do you guys think should i try to dual boot my laptop with vista on it so i can also run ubuntu or would it be much less trouble to run a virtual.  I have never messed with anything like this so I want the easiest route to running linux.  Any ideas/thoughts?

[perkiset]

Personally I'm all virtual, since the virtualized OS speed is only about 10% down from the native's speed. Since I *primarily* work out of one OS and then do testing, playing about etc etc with others, it is easy to bring it up while I still have email/IM etc on my native, do what I need to do and shut it down.

Additionally, Parallels has the ability to "snapshot" the drive image at a certain point, allowing you to easily regress to there - this is really handy for Windows since I can browse and do just about anything I want, then when I am infected with something I can just back up to my last snapshot. Allows me to play with ... um ... certain techniques without fear of ratf%$#ing my machine.

And with a whole lotsa RAM, I can have a Windows with IE6, Windows with IE7 and a flavor of Linux open all at the same time for testing, rather than having to bounce out to get there.


/p

[dink]

Hey sassy, I ran dual boot for years.  What a royal pain in the ass it was.
Until the perk convinced me to change to virtuals.

I wouldn't go back to dual boots for a whole big pile of cash.  The parallels option is a good one, but there are others.  Including some nifty free ones.  There are some threads about virtuals on here.

[nutballs]

coincidentally I just downloaded ubuntu, for possibly the same thing.

The 1 catch, and I know this is going to be totally dorky, is World of Warcraft. LOL
I am not sure how that will run under parallels vista/xp.

[perkiset]

I've not had anything be a problem under parallels, but I've never tried something with graphics hardware emulation, so who knows? Probably work OK but slower.

[nutballs]

for me there are a few little things that generally prevent me from bothering to try ubuntu as my main OS. messengers, VPN, and games.

in the end, i will just probably stick with windows.

[dink]

The 1 catch... is World of Warcraft.
I am not sure how that will run under parallels vista/xp.

I remember a thread on the ubuntu forum about this.
Don't recall the details, but I'm sure those geeks
have it all sorted.   

And, I know exactly what you mean about 'stuck with
windoze'.  I'm mostly in the same boat, however, the
virtuals solution is near perfect.

Running winXp on the main and ubuntu in virtual.  Easy
click from one to the other.  Love it. 

A plus for me is the ability to have the linux portion doing
some long, intensive, webby stuffy, while I'm dinking around
with *whatever* on M$.

[vsloathe]

...messengers, VPN, and games.

First two are completely taken care of. Unless you have some really weird proprietary shit going on, a middle schooler should be able to figure out how to get anything you need working. Games are another issue.

afaik, WoW runs under crossover Games without any fuss, and Wine with a slight tweak here or there.

Don't waste your life on MMOs though. It's more fun to write a bot for them and sell accounts.

[perkiset]

I just purchased the upgrade to Parallels 4 - looks like they've handled a lot of shittiness. It now is fine with my 6 monitor rig, operation of the virtual is considerably snappier - I'd say it's on par with a solid Windows machine - at least for basic stuff. Haven't tried anything more tricky, but they claim that the hardware abstraction layer has been reworked and that games et al operate just fine.

It's also better at having multiple virtuals open at once - I used to get some troubles now and again with more than 1 open.

All that said, I'm not sure, but I think it's leaking on me... I think it's slowly sucking ram and when I kill Parallels and restart, it's not giving it back. More on that if I can figure it out.

[jammaster82]

I use vmware workstation ... i think vmware fusion is avail for the mac...

parallels works better on the mac/ubuntu than it does on windows

but i have windows vista running vmware workstation and i tried same
experiment with parallels for windows and if your on windows vmware
workstation has ultimately proved to be more beterrer (lol) .... just have a
core 2 duo 2.4ghz(x2) and 3gb of ram and its running ubuntu 8.04 gui,
ubuntu jeos, windows xp, and windows 98 all at the same time with little
or no noticeable lag...   i can watch movies, make skype calls, and do
just about whatever  inside of the emulated virtual machines .... i cant get back into wow or online games i am
powerless to control my addiction to it and cant go backwards from step 12
on this one...

...my 6 monitor rig

for some reason , and i have no data to back this up but it seems the more ram i devote to some of these vms the slower they run.

@nbs: if you want, i can send you my jeos ubuntu server or anyone already set up lamped and ready to roll... just hit play and your rockin.

if anyone wants to roll their own i posted the steps i followed:

http://www.perkiset.org/forum/php/ubuntu_804_jeos_just_enough_os_lamp_server_for_dummies-t920.0.html

:jealousywank.gif:  that sounds so balls awesome.

[perkiset]

Reasonably confirmed: P4 is leaking on Windows virtuals, but it gives most of it back when you quit. MOST of it.

:jealousywank.gif:  that sounds so balls awesome.

Tis indeed. However my nuts glow in the dark because of the radiation pouring at me.

[dink]

I've been toying with the idea of just getting another box to play on.
I see some fairly nifty laptops on ebay for a reasonable price.

So, buy the laptop, run wipe disc, install ubuntu, set up my vpn.
Off to the races.