Why do you use a virtual machine?

[RST101]

As the title suggests I would like to know for what purposes do you use a virtual machine. Is it for performance issues or compatibility or do you do it because you can? I have never used it myself as I have never had the need to so don't really know what it's all about, but I cant get my head around why you would not want to just run things off the operating system you have. I'm fortunate in that all the games and software I use have no problems running on x64 windows 7 so xp mode wont be installed on my machine.

 

[bobdonkey]

Personally, I use it for 2 reasons:

1. Applications that require XP

For example, at the moment I have an XP VM for testing an SSL VPN connection, that does not work on 7, so I can still connect to a corporate network.

2. Server testing

I run a few 2003 servers, for testing server stuff. This works well on Windows Virtual PC (better than VPC2007 did on the the Beta).

 

[Xcode]

Mitchell on Demand 2005 does not work on Win7 correctly... it works, but not 100%..

I have not tried MasterCam X2 yet on Win7, but I hear it does not work, so I am perpared with my XP VM to use it.

 

[DaRonRon]

well i wanted to try it out but apparantly Sony doesnt want its Vaio customers doing so...

 

[garysgold]

To play around with server 2008 and also comes in handy if I'm over at Vista forums as I can have Vista running in a VM and not lose use of W7 for other things.

Gary

 

[ces973]

So far, I've used mine for Exchange 2007 Management Tools and the 2003 Server Admin Tools Pack.

 

[Regal]

Just because I can

 

[drevilwebmaster]

i will run windows 2008 web server in virtual mode

 

[Lanthus20]

For me i'm running windows XP with windows 7 in a virtual machine. Its because I didn't know if I would like windows 7 or not so I didn't want to commit my PC to it. This way if something goes wrong it goes wrong inside the virtual PC, it doesn't leave. And if I want to delete 7 I can easily enough. Now that I've used it for a while I'm seriously thinking about going and buying a new machine, likely a cheap laptop to use seven on. Until 7 comes out and is available in a more permanent solution I wont be committing my current machine to 7.

 

[darkassain]

for honeypoting!...
that and testing different OS's on it.. (VPC still has a longs ways to go in the matter of features)

 

[DarkXeno]

I use the VM for some very old apps written in 98 but run in XP for specail equipment the writers of the software are no where to be found today so porting them to Vista or 7 is on the impossible side. I also have a Win2k Server in VM due to work and testing settings before I change the real one. We are now looking at moving to Server 2008 but with everyone tighting the money belt that might not happen so Im looking at ways to run the old Servers as long as I can.
Plus I the added reason is I can and makes it very nice in meetings to show people what the server or app looks like on a laptop running server and the app by its self letting the customer toy around with it not having to worry about the real database cause I can wipe the demo copy and reset a new one from the orginail. Full network right in your hands on a laptop makes life easier.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi all
There's no way I can run THIS on W7 or even any 64 Bit OS currently.

If you need to access this type of Software (SAP) you have to wait until this has been upgraded.

As there are literally thousands of companies running this world wide doing an upgrade on this scale is going to take years.

It's one thing to upgrade a base OS running a few stand alon Office type applications but running a fully blown ERP system containing HR, Finanace, Materials Management, Logistsics etc etc is a totally different ball game.

It will still be a while yet before this stuff will run on W7 - and larger companies might take YEARS before they upgrade. Virtualisation is the only answer.

Here's a typical shot of a SAP application screen -- this is running on an XP VM front end (note the database and application servers are usually on Linux servers whilst the front end is a Windows server).


Cheers
jimbo

 

[swarfega]

me, I just like messing about with virtualisation, seeing what ancient OS I can install. Managed to get Windows 1.1 installed in the past lol.

 

[scaramonga]

Better than using Anti-Virus

 

[MasterEvilAce]

I use VirtualBox to run Windows XP. I had to do this because I have some VPN applications that don't work in Windows 7. This, however, has let me see some hidden benefits.

First, I keep all of my work stuff separate. If I format my computer, my virtual machine image is intact, meaning I don't have to reinstall anything for work related tasks.

Second being all my network traffic doesn't go through the VPN anymore, only what the VM does. So my Windows 7 (the host OS) uses my connection regularly, and my XP (guest VM OS)'s traffic goes through the VPN

It works pretty well, so I'm keeping it this way even when the apps get Win7 support

 

[dw96]

1. To try out something more serious, like mess with system files, without fLucking up my real OS

2. For fun, when the best of the best (Win7) starts to get boring, it's always fun to go to the basement, find those old original CD's of NT and check what it was like back then. Still, no harm done to your real OS.

3. Last for compatibility issues, sure I haven't seen many of those since I've started using 7, but it's wise to keep the classic XP in handy whenever you need it...

 

[kwxvii]

As somebody already mentioned, some vpn clients (like Cisco or Nortel) works intermittently with Windows7/Vista at best, so I need to run WinXP for vpn. I also run some server stuff, like IIS for some scripting job...and of course to play around with different flavors of Linux. I wonder a user mentioned that he wanted to run vm but he can't since he has a Vaio...I have a Vaio and I run VMWARE x64...

 

[banderz777]

So I have one question, can I run OSX in this ???

 

[jimbo45]

So I have one question, can I run OSX in this ???

Provided you have the Intel version of the macbook you *could* in theory run this on a PC (you need an OS install disk to install the Virtual OS whatever OS you want as a guest)

However there's a caveat here apart from the legal B/S stuff about running APPLE OS'es on non APPLE gear. There are some closed proprietary drivers that might not be supported in the Virtual hardware when you try and install the OS.

So i haven't heard of anybody actually running OSX on a non Apple machine -- however since OSX is only a Unix derivative why not run one of the many Linux distros out there -- these are very OSX like and you've got a lot more choice.

Note of course there isn't any problem in running WINDOWS on a Macbook in a virtual machine -- try BOOTCAMP or PARALLELS for the Virtual machine software. (You will need an XP install disk as well of course).

Cheers
jimbo

 

[kwxvii]

So I have one question, can I run OSX in this ???

Here's an article about multi-booting with OSX...
Build Your Own Hackintosh

A good read...