Getting started with Virtualization
I try to learn new technologies, especially with regards to developing applications. This means that I keep installing (and uninstalling) frameworks, tools, applications and so on. Over a period of time, my box is littered with so many unwanted applications and a messy registry. Sometimes, the only option left to clean the box is to format and re-install! Not a good option.
With prices falling, may be I could just buy another laptop or a desktop. But being in IT, we move – we move from one to job to another, or to a different client project or to a far-off country. So having another laptop, just for this purpose, doesn’t seem a good option either.
As I searched for an alternative, I stumbled on free Virtualization products from VMWare (VMWare Player) and Microsoft (Virtual PC). (There are other free Virtualization products as well – but I limited myself to these two). With them, I can run a PC inside a PC. What a cool idea! I thought to give it a shot.
Downloading and Installing VMWare Player and VPC was easy. Then I downloaded Open Suse /Mono image; fired up VMWare and I was running SuSe box inside of WinXP! Well it is going good so far.
I got a Ubuntu box as well and what came as a pleasant surprise was that I could use the same downloaded VMWare image (albeit an automatic conversion) in Ubuntu as well.
With an initial success, I wanted to install WinXP in a virtual machine. VMWare doesn’t provide options to create new virtual machines (or virtual disks). However VPC does. Installing WinXP in VPC is same as that of any physical box.
So I got both WinXP and Linux in a virtual box.
It is a human tendency to be discontent. I continued to browse for information on Virtualization and found that I could convert a VPC image into a VMWare image (and vice versa). Thus I could run WinXP in Linux using VMWare.
Finally I installed Visual Studio Express editions as well.
I’ve gotten all the needed infrastructure now. I should get to develop some applications.
Helpful Links:
VMWare Converter – to convert VPC or physical machines to VMWare image.
VMToolKit – to convert VMWare image to VPC
Forever Help for VMWare Images