I Want To Run A Computer Within A Computer

Marik_Steele

<div class="IPBDescription">Know any good software?</div> I'd like to try a good number of different operating systems (Windows and Linux) on a completely work-oriented machine before settling on one distribution to keep. Until I've made a decision to format and install for good, I'd like to emulate each through Windows, sort of like those Russian matryoshka dolls but with only one nested within the other. It'll help to be able to switch back and forth between virtual computers without needing to reformat and reinstall.

I've found <a href='http://www.vmware.com/' target='_blank'>VMWare</a>, but $300 is a weee bit much for what I intend to use it for. I found <a href='http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/virtualpc/' target='_blank'>Microsoft Virtual PC 2004</a>, but a 45-day-trial may not be long enough for me to try out everything I want. I found <a href='http://bochs.sourceforge.net/' target='_blank'>Bochs emulator</a>, but I'm still looking for other free options.

Know of any?

BlackMage

could you buy a cheap hard drive (like 5-8gb) and just boot from that?
i dont know of any software though, i'll look for it though.

DOOManiac

I agree w/ Black Mage. Just pick up another hard drive. That way you don't risk corrupting anything in your current configuration, and also you don't have to mess with any issues the emulation might bring up. (not to mention speed enhancements)

DiscoZombie

yeah, either new HD or spend no money at all and create a new partition for your new OS...

xect

Yeah, boot partitions are your friend. Emulation is death, because the speed you lose will take away any usability linux has. Part of the point in linux is the different way it handles speed and security. By emulating, you get all the weakness of linux and windows combined, and all the resource hogging of linux and windows combined, and all the system problems of both. By dual-booting, you will be able to use them one at a time.

Granted, it'll take you 30 to 60 seconds to switch because you have to reboot, but I'd say it's well worth it (but then again, who am I to talk about such matters, I only installed linux a few days ago and my desktopmanager isnt even working yet)

Scum_of_the_Universe

I don't know of any other free vms for windows.
If you use a vm you won't know about hardware compatiability problems or get 3d acceleration.
You shouldn't need to reformat, both <a href='http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/' target='_blank'>fat32</a> and <a href='http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/ntfsresize.html' target='_blank'>ntfs</a> can be <a href='http://www.sysresccd.org/' target='_blank'>resized</a> (but backup first).

Marik_Steele

Buying a 2nd hard drive would normally be my first thought, but there's a problem:
This is a laptop.

There are no external drives on sale for affordable prices, and if there were they'd probably still be slow.