F10 -- Xen, VirtualBox, or VMWare?

[Bill Davidsen]

Beartooth wrote:
> On Thu, 05 Feb 2009 17:00:55 -0700, Phil Meyer wrote:
> 
>> McGuffey, David C. wrote:
>>> Rather than configuring a dual-boot machine for running those
>>> occasional Windows apps, which one of these virtualization tools
>>> provides the best (read most accurate) virtualization environment on
>>> F10?  Which one is the easiest to install and configure?  I had
>>> problems with VMWare on F7, and would prefer not to go that route
>>> again.  I have no experience with the other two.
>  
>> I would vote KVM as well.  Support for native disks and USB devices is
>> trivial.  However, the selling points for me of all of them are these:
>>
>> 1. Xen == Novel/Microsoft (yes, MS bought rights to Xen, and development
>> stopped/slowed to nothing)
>>
>> 2. VMWare == Windows host focus.  Linux support is sub par and building
>> their kernel modules may always be an issue.
>>
>> 3. KVM is in the mainline kernel and gets a lot of (good and bad)
>> attention.
>>
>> 4. Virtualbox == some really old code from SUN.  It requires its own
>> device driver and can conflict with KVM.
> 
> 	What of Rahul's comment, further up the thread, saying "KVM  
> (assuming you have the hardware support) with Virt-manager (if you
> need a GUI)"??
> 
> 	How do we tell if we have the hardware it takes? (And I for one 
> do need a GUI for anything very complicated.)
> 
>> 5. I am a command line/scripting person, and starting a series of VMs
>> based upon KVM is easily made to be automatic.
>>
>> I have no problem typing:
>>
>> $ sudo qemu-kvm -hda /dev/sdb1 -net nic -net user -m 1024 -soundhw all
> 
> 	Aaaiiieeeee! <runs screaming into the middle distance> 
> 
> 	Such CLI-fu is beyond all hope for me. I prefer the CLI where 
> feasible, to be sure, but I won't live long enough to be able to type a 
> whole such line. So what's your take on this Virt-GUI? Is it part of KVM? 
> 
Typing one line? I avoid GUI because even when I know exactly what I want to do 
I have to go look through menu after menu and see if the GUI author wanted to 
allow me to do what I want. Feels like fly-tying wearing mittens.

Under GNOME you can add a launcher to your tool bar which executes a command 
line (which all launchers actually do) and have it do just what you want. Like 
having an icon for each of several virtual machines...

> 	Can we just do "yum install kvm" or "yum install kvm virt" and 
> expect to get, if not success, a message we can use to make success 
> possible? Something, I mean, more encouraging than "Go replace your 
> motherboard, hard drive, and xkcd-bus, you idiot!"?? 
> 
> 	Or is this whole alternative to dual booting still for Alpha Plus 
> Technoids only?
> 
> 	Dumb question on a small point of purism, btw. IF (big if) I 
> understand correctly, some if not all of these virtualizers actually 
> contain (in some sense of "contain") a full install of XP or whatever, 
> wrapped in linux like a mystery inside an enigma -- or a cyst  inside an 
> organ. Does KVM?? I'd a lot rather get rid of all the products of Redmond 
> if I can ....
> 
No, you get to do a Windows install in your virtual machine.

-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot