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Re: mac virtualization recommendation



>>>>> "adc" == Alicia da Conceicao <alicia%engine.ca@localhost> writes:

   adc> VMware Fusion VM image created on a MacOSX desktop can be
   adc> copied to Windows and Linux desktop computers and still work
   adc> under their respective copies of VMware Workstation?

yes you can copy them around as you like (mostly).

sometimes certain .vmx syntax is not entirely consistent from one
build of VMWare's stuff to another.  You can look at the .log files
VMWare spits out to find the error, edit the .vmx to correct it, then
correct the drivers inside the guest to match the new ``virtual
hardware.''  but it can be a little frustrating.  once you get the
.vmx to least-common-denominator you can copy.  What you can't do is
suspend/hibernate the VM on one host and resume it on another, for
among other reasons that the CPU features like sse3 and tsc of the
host bleed through to the guest.  Sometimes it works enough to fail
hilariously though.

I mostly use VirtualBox for everything and try to avoid running
proprietary operating systems on the host, so my VMWare info might be
a little out of date.

   adc> On a side note, has anyone been able to run NetBSD as a Xen
   adc> DomU with Xen Dom0 running on MacOSX?  

a what?  I heard a rumor that Apple has closed down the open source
part of Mac OS X, so if there ever was such thing as a Darwin dom0
(was there?) then it will probably bitrot very soon.  This would be an
excellent time to wean yourself off apple's proprietary teat, if you
care about this sort of thing (though in my experience many BSD people
don't---one reason I'm trying to use less of it. I find this whole
thread pretty demoralizing. :).

   adc> If so, how portable are the Xen DomU VM images between
   adc> different Xen host operating systems?

I don't use Xen but heard at a recent FreeBSD talk that the Xen
revision of the U and the 0 have to match *exactly*, not just the
major version number matching, which ends up killing any attempt at
interoperation unless someone has already deliberately banged on it
and forced it to work.  however.....:

Everyone is trying to interoperate with EC2, so the FAQ seems to be,
``can you run your domU on both _______ and EC2?''  By transitive
property, this might make things interoperate more often, some day
soon.

BTW i've heard of many EC2 competitors like fairwayconsulting and
voxel, in case you find EC2 slow/overpriced.  but as usual I'm just
repeating what I've heard not experience so YMMV.

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