I'm using VirtualBox 2.2.2 to run a Ubuntu 9.04 on WinXP (32 bit) as a testbed for migrating my lab servers/workstations from Fedora 8. It runs surprisingly well with 512 Mbyte of assigned memory and 64 Mbyte of assigned graphics memory. I have even used it to test Wine to run some Win-only crystallography software within Ubuntu within WinXP (!) with very good performance on a dual core 2.4 GHz machine with 2 Gbyte total memory. The only thing you will not get in the virtual machine is accelerated graphics performance. If you are expecting to run Coot or Pymol in a virtual machine, forget it. (However, it does work, and I can get about 15 frames/sec with the non-native graphics. It's certainly usable, if a bit slow.) What you can do is set up share folders so that you can open files in Vista and get native graphics performance in your favorite graphical applications. VMWare is snappier, but VirtualBox is free.

Cheers, Roger Rowlett


Andy Torelli wrote:
Hello everyone,

	I would like to install a system virtual machine to run Ubuntu Linux as 
a guest OS on a 32-bit Vista laptop.  The idea is to allow occasional 
use of crystallographic refinement programs while I'm away from lab. 
The laptop has an Intel Core 2 duo processor (2.0 GHz) and 3 GB RAM.
	There are popular software programs available (VMWare, Parallels, 
VirtualBox, etc.), but is anyone aware of any considerations that would 
make one better for the above purposes?  For example, will one offer 
easy control over distributing hardware resources to prevent crippling 
Vista while running refinement within the guest Linux?  My Google and 
CCP4bb searches have not turned up anything so far.

Thanks in advance for any advice or reference material.  I will post a 
summary e-mail as well.

Best Regards,
-Andy Torelli

  
--

Roger S. Rowlett
Professor
Colgate University Presidential Scholar
Department of Chemistry
Colgate University
13 Oak Drive
Hamilton, NY 13346

tel: (315)-228-7245
ofc: (315)-228-7395
fax: (315)-228-7935
email: rrowl...@mail.colgate.edu

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