"why not vmware?"

As stated in my last post, it's too cumbersome.  VMware Player can only play existing vms, it cannot be used to create or edit them.  VMware Server will create/edit, but doesn't play nice with the other guys around.  It's very heavy on system resources and wants to take over the host machine and run in the background all the time.  Plus, half the time it didn't start up correctly (at least, on my machines)--I frequently had to go into Windows Services and restart one of the VMware services that was supposed to start on bootup.

I have a comparison on my "Introduction to VirtualPC" webpage.  A more up-to-date comparison with VirtualPC 2007 and VMware Player 2 would be a bit different, but mostly the same.  Microsoft's VirtualPC is much too convenient and easy not to use, so VMware has to coexist with that or it doesn't stay on my main OS.  Server didn't, so got relegated to an alternate multiboot partition.  The only reason I kept VMware around was for when I needed a vm that could handle a usb device (other than mouse/keyboard/hard drives).

VirtualBox is not perfect and not as convenient to use as VPC, but as of this year it has improved enough that it's replaced VMware when I need usb support.

BTW, all four of the products I've mentioned here are free.

Here's a little from that page:

Quote:

seems vpc does not sppt wxp home

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/virtualpc/default.mspx

Rad wrote: "seems vpc does not sppt wxp home"

It works fine on a XP Home host.  It's just not officially supported... though I don't know what that means because it's not like Microsoft is going to give you any support anyway.  It's a free product, and if you need help you don't call Microsoft, you visit the VirtualPC newsgroup.


Rad wrote: "Kinda weird to hear somebody say that something else is MORE cumbersome than a Microsoft product"

Well, maybe because it's not a true "Microsoft product" at heart.  VirtualPC was really developed by Connectix, from whom Microsoft bought it in 2003.  It doesn't seem to have changed very much since then--maybe there's not a lot of incentive since MS turned around and released it for free?

The story I've heard is that MS was frustrated with corporate IT folks who were reluctant to move their shops to XP because they had a huge investment in custom developed NT applications.  So MS looked around and bought VirtualPC from Connectix so they could tell the corporate folks, "See? You can upgrade to XP and we'll give you this VirtualPC thing so you don't have to get rid of your NT stuff."  

If it was being used as a carrot, perhaps that played into the decision to make it free.

And the conspiracy theorist in me wonders if that is why Microsoft has never added USB support--that was never part of their intended purpose for buying VirtualPC in the first place.


Brian wrote: "I hope this doesn't shake our confidence in Steve Gibson but Paul Terrell doesn't work at TeraByte Unlimited."

Yeah, that startled me when I listened to the netcast!

Google says Paul Terrell is the founder of the 'Byte Shop' chain of computer stores back in the 80's.  (I remember those!)  I guess maybe Steve thought that evolved into 'TeraByte Unlimited'.

Rad wrote: "Dang. I just deleted the download from my system."

Dont' knock yourself out.  You're looking to run ubuntu.  I made an attempt to install ubuntu in VirtualPC, but it didn't work for some reason.  (I'm running ubuntu in VirtualBox.)


Dan wrote: "I guess maybe Steve thought that evolved into 'TeraByte Unlimited'."
Rad wrote: "That would be a LOT of Byte shops. =)  "

LOL!

Given Steve's background, I wouldn't be surprised if he had personally met Terrell at some point.  Wikipedia says Terrell was in Mountain View and his 'Byte Shop' chain flourished throughout Silicon Valley in the late-70's and 80's.  Steve grew up just a few miles from there (San Mateo, IIRC) and was in high school or college around that time.