DISQUS

oraclebase · 8 months ago

I love VMs. I do everything with them. I keep a clean Linux (CentOS 5) install as a host OS and do everything on VMs. As you mentioned, if anything goes wrong you just fire up a clone. It's also cool when you need to transfers stuff between physical machines. Just move the images. No reinstalls. :)

The cloud stuff sounds cool, but I wouldn't trust it for a demo. :)

Cheers

Tim...

Jake · 8 months ago

Re. performance, I didn't do much with DSL other than other prove the concept. It did seem fast enough, but I wonder how it would perform during a sync of the disk file to Dropbox.

jpiwowar · 8 months ago

Huge virtualization fan. VMware Workstation user since '01 (what version was that, 2, 3?) ESX at my last job, and Fusion these days. Dabbled w/ Parallels, and Virtualbox has been on my "check this out soon" list for way too long (free has less appeal since I've already paid for Fusion) . This cloud VM you describe sounds *very* cool; I need to give it a whirl. Thanks for the pointer!

Jake · 8 months ago

It is cool, but check Tim's point about performance. I didn't run it long enough to see how it performed during a sync.

jpiwowar · 8 months ago

Fair point. Guessing that syncing, particularly in an environment with a bandwidth imbalance (ones typical home broadband setup, for example), could be painful. Heaven knows my Mozy backups take long enough. :-P OTOH, the real allure of virtualization for me is usually convenience, not performance, so I'll probably still check it out.

Jake · 8 months ago

I didn't mean to dissuade you. It's still rad.

I wish it were more portable. I suppose you could install Dropbox and VBox on a friend/family PC without a huge problem. Still, having the portability of a USB stick, minus the BIOS changes would rock.

Dan Norris · 8 months ago

I'm just a caveman lawyer. A caveman lawyer that likes sweet virtualization ideas like this one, though. Good on ya!

Jake · 8 months ago

I know it's frightening. Because you're a caveman -- that's the way you think.

terrywang · 8 months ago

I am a huge fan of Virtualization as well. I use VM everyday as a part of my job.

I started with VMWare Workstation 3.0 for Windows back in late 2001.

I have tried Virtualbox. It does not support some of my 50+ VM images (on 2*1TB external HD^^) in vmdk format , especially some in suspend state. So I have to give up as all my VMs were built using VMWare Workstation before, and I need to get my job done:)

I don't know if you guys feel Vbox is a bit buggy.

However, I think finally I'll embrace Vbox as it is opensource and free! Once it is more stable and mature.

I agree that Dropbox can be a very good choice of 'cloud storage'.

In terms of Linux distros, I prefer Debian/Ubuntu, Arch and Gentoo for test, with light-weight XFCE or Fluxbox/LXDE as DE/WM.

In my case, to choose a distro, Package Management System is the most important factor. I prefer APT, Pacman and Portage.

Jake · 8 months ago

What's buggy about VBox? I haven't hit any issues that I can remember. Personally, I find VMWare to be bloated, but then again, I don't use my VMs too extensively.