Virtualised OS's on the iMac - fantastic:)

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Wow - thanks to Trevor Gerdes, I'm now sailing along on the new 27" QuadCore iMac (with only 4Gb RAM at the moment) - running Vista64 Ultimate and Linux (Ubuntu derivative "Linux Mint") absolutely seamlessly, and at the same time under VMware Fusion 3 for OSX (Intel). Virtualisation isn't new, and it's been mentioned here on IIS a number of times. It's just that I've never seen it so well done before this. As you mouse over each window, mouse control is attributed to it. You don't have to remember mouse-in and mouse-out control sequences any more.

I've set VMware Fusion 3 such that each guest OS has direct access to my iMac's document/picture/movie/etc folders - which means that MacOSX, Vista64 and LinuxMint all share the same common disk resource, and all without any complicated setup whatsoever. I used to use Sun Microsystems VirtualBox (vBox), but no longer. All machines have complete access to all peripherals and networks and it's all simple plug n' play - way too easy. If you leave each virtual machine in a window, you can simply re-scale the window (drag bottom right corner) and the guest OS display scales with you! Resolution scales with you as you drag, which means that it's crystal clear in the window no matter how large or small the window is - all without having to adjust resolution inside the OS itself. It helps that the iMac display resolution is 2560x1440.

I need this setup so that I can easily test my company's web-based publishing workflow software in all environments, and Fusion 3 lets me do this all on the one machine, and all at the same time. I gotta love this virtualisation caper - especially now it's so darn easy. It helps to have such a grunty machine, but hey - it's cheaper than running three separate ones isn't it? LOL!

Here's a screenshot of my Mac OSX desktop, with both Linux and Vista64 running at the same time on it - without any noticeable slowness from any of them, including the host OSX. I usually have each virtual machine running on its own desktop at full-screen (Mac "Spaces") and just flick between them when needed with a control-right or control-left keyboard command.


Click to open>>


I guess the upshot for this means that I will upgrade the Vista64 VM to Windows7 soon, and be able to run all my astro software on my iMac.

Noice

[RB (Andrew)]

That looks very interesting Chris.
I've only just started to look into VMware just out of curiosity, I've been told it's better than MS XP emulation under Win7.

I've still got an old lappy that I want to install Win7 Ultimate 32bit on but it can't run XP mode since it doesn't have enough video grunt.

I'm hoping I can use VMware instead.

[Tandum (Robin)]

I think you misunderstand xp mode Andrew. Once setup and the application is installed into the xp virtual machine, the virtual machine itself runs in the background not in a window and the xp application runs directly on the windows 7 desktop. I'm still experimenting with it myself.

[RB (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by Tandum

I think you misunderstand xp mode Andrew. Once setup and the application is installed into the xp virtual machine, the virtual machine itself runs in the background not in a window and the xp application runs directly on the windows 7 desktop. I'm still experimenting with it myself.

Thanks for that Robin, yes I'll have to do a bit more reading first, only just starting out atm.
As I understood it VMware allows you to install the whole OS and run the whole thing like an XP virtual machine while Win 7 (XP mode) only runs the app in a window in XP mode.
When I tried to test my lappy for XP compatibility, MS said my integrated video card didn't support this graphics mode, not able to run Aero or something like that.

So I assume I would be able to run VMware on my Win 7 lappy and load an XP VMachine?

Or have I totally misunderstood?

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

I just confirmed that the Vista64 virtual machine successfully talks to my QHY5 autoguider with the ASCOM version of the QHY5 CCDlabs driver and PHD 1.11.0.

This means that I have my QHY5 running under Vista64 on a Mac while it's still running under OSX and not BootCamping to Windows instead. (I really dislike BootCamp.... ask Mike Salway... LOL!).

Now I don't see why it wouldn't also run the QHY9 (in ASCOM mode) along side as well. Capture/align with MaximDL and then process with CS4 under OSX all at the same time.

Fabulous!

>> Click here to view:

[gbeal]

Darn, can I do this with my MacBook? Or is it power hungry?
Looks the goods for what you want though Chris.
Gary

[troypiggo (Troy)]

Yeah, that VMWare is a nifty tool. I've been running WinXP in a VM on my MacBook Pro. All the astro software runs fine - EQMod/ASCOM, CdC, Nebulosity, Registax, K3CCDTools, AlignMaster, PHD, Astroplanner, even the bluetooth connection to GPS. Also use it for work - all our WinXP based analysis tools, AutoCAD - fine. Haven't tried any OpenGL 3D intensive software/games on it, not sure how that'd go.

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by RB

Thanks for that Robin, yes I'll have to do a bit more reading first, only just starting out atm.
As I understood it VMware allows you to install the whole OS and run the whole thing like an XP virtual machine while Win 7 (XP mode) only runs the app in a window in XP mode.
When I tried to test my lappy for XP compatibility, MS said my integrated video card didn't support this graphics mode, not able to run Aero or something like that.

So I assume I would be able to run VMware on my Win 7 lappy and load an XP VMachine?

There are two types of VMWare. ESX which we won't go into further beyond saying that it runs on the hardware and you virtualise everything on top of it. At work we have thousands of Windows and Linux images running on hundreds of ESX servers.

The ones you are talking about are Server and Workstation which run on top of another o/s like Windows or Linux. I haven't used Fusion on Macs so have nothing to add to Chris's comments.

Server is free but I find recent versions hard work to get running.

Workstation is not free and I have it running on Slackware 12.2 on a Q6600 and on Windows XPPro 32bit on a T400. They will run just about any 32 bit o/s. Because the hardware is physically 64 bit they will run 64 bit guests.

Once you install the VMWare tools into the guest O/S it's reasonably seamless.

But you do need enough memory. I tried to virtualise Mum's Windows 98 (she refuses to stop using it) onto her XP box which only had 512M RAM. I had to plug in a 2GB DIMM before 98 would run without XP paging itself to death.

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Originally Posted by gbeal

Darn, can I do this with my MacBook? Or is it power hungry?
Looks the goods for what you want though Chris.
Gary

Why not Gary - I'm guessing that a relatively modern MacBook will have plenty enough grunt to run XP without any drama. Here's the link: http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/

Highly recommended

[kustard (Simon)]

Damn you Chris!!

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Originally Posted by kustard

Damn you Chris!!

How rude!

[kustard (Simon)]

Originally Posted by Omaroo

How rude!

Just pure envy

I assume all linux played nicely with the Mac hardware? Was there any issues you had when setting up the virtual machines?

NB: I've used VMWare products for years at work, they have provided the most stable of platforms for us.

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Fusion 3 is brilliant Simon - no issues whatsoever. Even silly little things like, for example, the iSight web camera just fire up once you capture the hardware from any VM. It;s seamless. The level of integration is just...wel.. lightyears ahead of vBox, which is what I've been using for years on Win and Linux platforms. It's all just a pure delight on OSX.

[tlgerdes (Trevor)]

Have you tried the Unity function yet?

[tlgerdes (Trevor)]

Also if you use PHD for guiding. Download this version
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads...ing_1.11.3.exe

No install, just run it in XP, Vista, Win7

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Originally Posted by tlgerdes

Have you tried the Unity function yet?

Wow... how COOL is that? It hides the Windows machine/desktop and mounts Windows applications directly onto the Mac desktop, as well putting appropriate icons in all the right places such as in the taskbar and dock! Even the sidebar widgets work.

Sensational!!!!!




Click to open >>

[kustard (Simon)]

I've put my order in for an iMac 27" with the ball and chain, and given that I've just called her a "ball and chain" I don't like my chances

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

LOL! I think that there are a few people thinking the same Simon. I bought mine on my company account down at JBhifi on Wednesday arvo. Talking to the guy on the floor, five 27" iMacs had been delivered to the store at 10:00am, and by 2:00pm when I bought mine there were none left. They're waiting for the next shipment now. There are quite a few around at various dealers though.

Also - I chose JB because you can haggle on peripherals - a thing you can't do in an Apple Store.

[supernova1965 (Warren)]

Hi Chris


I noticed that your dock is never visable in your pic's do you set it to hide after a short time. I like to keep it visable as I thinks it's so cool.

I have pulled the G5 down completely and have almost finished cleaning it I have checked the fuses in the P/S and it seems not to have blown so I will put it back together and see if I get any life out of it. Crossed fingers.

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

LOL! Yeah Warren - I like a perfectly empty and serene desktop. Not even a "Macintosh HD" disk icon.

Here's my new machine's desktop - clean-as. >>


Good news re; the G5! I'mkeeping mine - it's one of my favourite machines of all time.