[NTLUG:Discuss] Running Windows Apps in Linux...

[kbrannen@gte.net]

Greg Edwards wrote:
> Vaidya, Harshal (Cognizant) wrote:
> 
>> The problem with VMware is that the Guest OS which you install runs 
>> horribly
>> slow. You need to have a server grade machine for VMware to work
>> efficiently.
>> This is my experience with VMware, not necessarily everyone's :)
>>
>> Harshal.
>>
> 
> 
> I'm running it on a 650 MHz Athlon with Mandrake 8.2 and I'd say that 
> you would grow impatient if you were running anything less than 500 MHz. 
>  At 650 MHz it's fairly responsive but you can sometimes see delays in 
> apps like Quicken and Peachtree.

For another data point...

I have a 500Mhz P3 at home and it's quite useable when running mswin98 (at 
work I've also run mswin2k on a 1.6Ghz machine which seem to run at almost 
native speed).  There are the occassional delays, but I also have 384M of RAM 
which probably helps a lot.  I would also advise not using vmware with 
anything less than a 500Mhz machine.  I also probably wouldn't use it for any 
action games, but Quicken and other non-real-time programs will not be an 
issue.  The only real problem I have is that sound has been very hard to 
configure and make work (i.e. I still don't have it working on this machine).

> 
> IMHO, the biggest drawback with VMWare is the startup price.  I got it 
> for $299 a couple years ago and you've got to have the full blown MS 
> release of whichever flavor.
> 
> However these guys have been great on upgrades.  I originally bought 
> v2.0 and they've given me free upgrades to the current v3.2.

Yes they are a bit proud of their software, but I guess they have a right to 
be as it works very well.  I'm not sure how much effort went into writing it, 
but I'm sure it was substantial.  I too bought at 2.x, but I think I had a $49 
(or something close) upgrade cost to 3.0.  Within major numbers, they do seem 
to have a free upgrade policy.

This program has saved me tons of time (can you measure time that way? :-) and 
has been well worth the money.  I highly recommend it.

Kevin