Virtualization
General Meeting - January 2009

Presented by Galen Bolin
Online reference materials

We showed virtualization - running one operating system as client inside another operating system. You boot a computer as normal and that becomes your host OS. Then you start the virtualization program and "boot" up another operating system which is the client. This way you can instantly move from running (as illustrated at the meeting) a Macintosh to running a Vista computer to running Linux. The limiting factor is usually the memory installed in your physical machine and that required by your clients.

Wikipedia is always a good place to start when you need to understand a new technology.

At the meeting we showed virtualization from VMware. Galen created his virtual machines using VMware Fusion for the Mac ($80) and his own licensed original distribution CDs of the operating system. On a PC, you would use VMware Workstation ($190) to create a virtual machine. Both programs offer a 30-day free trial. Once the virtual machine is created, you can run them on any (Windows or Linux) computer with the free VMware Player.

Run virtual machines on your Windows or Linux PC with VMware Player 2.5. This free desktop virtualization software application makes it easy to operate any virtual machine created by VMware Workstation, VMware Fusion, VMware Server or VMware ESX, as well as Microsoft Virtual Server virtual machines or Microsoft Virtual PC virtual machines. You can also use Player to evaluate one of the many virtual appliances available from the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace.

• Run multiple operating systems simultaneously on a single PC
• Experience the benefits of preconfigured products without any installation or configuration hassles
• Share data between host computer and virtual machine

Once you have VMware Player, you can download Virtual Appliances that have been created by other people. Like all products in the technical areas of the web, these may come from generous amateurs sharing their expertise, businesses showing off or selling demonstration products, pirates giving you something they've stolen, or greater miscreants trying to entice you to install something you really don't want. For the most part, no one except the author speaks for the legitimacy or quality of the product you may be getting.

There are other virtualization programs than those from VMware. Virtual Box (VBox) is a free open source virtualization tool with Sun's name behind it. It doesn't have the commercial support that VMware does, but is solid enough for an advanced PC user to play with. Most of the prebuilt vms tend to the Linux/Unix environments, but you can easily create a Windows machine from your own licensed CDs.

Microsoft also has it's own virtualization environment, the Virtual PC. (more information to come)

What can virtualization do for you?

(more information to come)

Disclaimers and pitfalls

(more information to come)