VMware is happy to announce that Player 2.0 Release Candidate is now available.

Included are several new and exciting features, such as:

* Experimental support for 2-way Virtual SMP assigns more than a single CPU to a virtual machine.
* Share data seamlessly between the virtual machine and host computer.
* Windows Vista support as a host and guest OS.
* Support for USB 2.0 devices allow you to use high speed performance peripherals within your virtual machine like MP3 Players.
* Appliance view allows you to start a virtual appliance and review brief description and other relevant information provided by the appliance author.
* New Home Page allows you to open existing virtual appliances or browse any of the 425 virtual appliances in the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace.
* Broad host and guest OS support includes over 60 supported 32- and 64-bit guest OSs.

Full review when my download finishes….

VirtualBox is a simple easy to use virtualization tool. With support for most common Intel clients such as Windows XP, Vista (note issue about manually installing NIC drivers, Solaris and many versions of Linux. The windows interface is quick to load and easy to navigate, it does seem almost to simple, but I feel that some other virtualization packages are really just too complicated for beginner users. The ability to save and create states is well thought out and easy to control.

Possibly my favorite feature which I have only seen in the beta of Microsoft’s Virtual Machine Manager, is a good media manager. Once you build up a few dozen Virtual machines and the associated iso images that go with them it does get confusing. The media manager makes it quick and simple to load up that floppy disk with the usb drivers you might need or a copy of open office.

The more virtualization packages I test out the more I think simple is better. VirtualBox has built a product that will hold up within this growing industry and with the unique features they should be able to excel where others may fail. Now, lets hope Microsoft doesn’t step in and buy them out.

All testing was done on Version 1.3.8 of the Windows Binary, Download VirtualBox directly from their website. Click to download 1.3.8 VirtualBox Binary

Pricing information:

I contacted the sales department in regards to this question and I have attached the PDF file they sent back to me. The PDF does answer most questions very well, with some real world situations and examples. For those who just want the short answer, here is a portion of their reply:

“Keep in mind that VirtualBox (even the commercial version) can be used free of charge in most setups. The only real caveat is when you perform automated installations of VirtualBox in a corporate environment. This this case you have to purchase a license. If corporate users individually install VirtualBox on PCs/servers, it is still free of charge. And there is of course the GPL version which is always free and comes with no restrictions at all.” Achim Hasenmueller

For full details, download the pdf: VirtualBox Pricing Structure PDF

Screenshots of VirtualBox, including the Main control panel:

One great feature is the easy to use Media Manager, allowing easy loading of Harddrive, Floppy and CD image files.

Simple and easy to use VirtualBox control panel, pretty much the same as any other Virtualization product.

Windows 2000 boots up nice and quickly, installation was a breeze.

Windows 3.11 is possibly one of the few problems I have seen with VirtualBox, the mouse doesn’t work inside 3.11!!!

Sources:
VirtualBox: UserManual.pdf
VirtualBox Open Source Edition (OSE) « Divilinux Lost Blog
linuX-gamers.net - VirtualBox vs. Qemu vs. VMware-player (updated) - Reviews - Articles
VirtualBox - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ovidiu’s Blog » Free (as in speech) virtualization from VirtualBox
The Codecruncher :: VirtualBox :: January :: 2007:
HackITLinux: VirtualBox on Dapper Drake
HackITLinux: VirtualBox: Commercial-grade Open Source virtualization
VirtualBox « Xubuntu Blog
LUX.ET.UMBRA: VirtualBox
Warped Systems - Create virtual Machines Using Virtualbox in Debian
Create virtual Machines Using Virtualbox in Debian — Debian Admin
Create and Manage Virtual Machines Using VirtualBox — Ubuntu Geek
Jason R Briggs : vmware and virtualbox

If you have ever used Belarc Advisor be careful. Recently people have discovered that Google has started to index the result pages. This doesn’t seem like a big deal until you realize that your windows product key is listed in among the results. If you have used the product recently you may want to search your domain and see if there are any of your result pages index on the web.

Everyone is patiently waiting for 2 major releases this spring, both of which we know now are not going to happen. The first release is Apple’s next version of OSX, named Leopard. The second major release is Microsoft’s Virtualization for Longhorn, named Viridian. Now each company has made public reasons why they are being held up, but I have the real reasons.

Microsoft publicly said “The primary drivers (behind the delays) are around meeting our internal goals for performance and scalability.” They expect to be able to scale out to 64 processors, and have the ability to hot swap Ram, CPU’s, storage and networking. Perhaps they have set their goals too high and should just get something out the door into a public beta, but they can’t risk delivering a product short of breath taking to compete with VMware.

Apple, on the other hand, stated “that software engineering and QA testing for the upcoming iPhone have caused delays in the release schedule of Mac OS X 10.5, aka Leopard.” Maybe they should hire some more people? Simple solution, they are going to need people to work on 10.5.1 and iPhone 2.0, so why not get the staff you need for both camps in house now before they get stuck in another round of delays.

Now, the truth, productivity has ground to a hault due to 1 little flash application. Striking fear into Management everywhere. Desktop Tower Defense. If you have anything you need to get done, DO NOT OPEN THIS LINK!!!, if you have homework, paperwork, or taxes to do, DO NOT OPEN THIS LINK!!!, but if you are sitting on your couch with a couple hours to kill try it out. Try Desktop Tower Defense, brought to you by hand drawn games.

Sources:
http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/04/apple_os_x_105_.html
http://www.computerworld.com/…&articleId=9016381&intsrc=hm_topic
http://blogs.technet.com/…/Viridian-and-Virtual-Server-Timing-Updates.aspx

Keeping an eye out for new Linux distributions to play with, I came across a very new LiveCD. The project is OLPC, also know as “One Laptop Per Child.” This is an initiative to build the sub $100 laptop for children in 3rd world countries who have never had the ability to go online or even do basic word processing. For more information about OLPC visit there website: http://www.laptop.org/. From their website:

Our goal: To provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves.

These laptops have undergone many different versions, as they work on the logistics, they have demoed versions that even have a wind up crank.

The liveCD is on a very overloaded redhat server. It took a few tries to get the download, but it is only 291 meg iso. The base for the operating system is “components from Red Hat’s Fedora Core 6 version of the Linux operating system” (from laptop.org)

http://olpc.download.redhat.com/olpc/streams/sdk/build1/livecd/

Here is a screenshot of the initial bootup inside of Parallels on a windows pc:

Once it boots I had major issues with the resolution, being unable to see the whole screen on my laptop I didn’t get any further. I also tried booting the LiveCD inside of Virtual PC, but it didn’t like that at all.

Sources:
http://shots.linuxquestions.org/?linux_distribution_sm=OLPC
http://news.com.com/2300-1041_3-6175025-1.html?tag=ne.gall.pg
http://www.steffanwilliams.co.uk/software/my-look-at-sugar

Press Release for immediate publication:
x86Virtualization.com now has an online store

We have opened a Cafe Press store with a beginning offering of items. As we get feedback and have more time we will clean up the logos to better fit each item. They are all a little rough around the edges, but are a great way to show support for x86virtualization.com.

Check out the store: Cafe Press Virtualization Logo Gear Store

Promotional News: Earn an easy $5.00

Purchase any shirt from the Cafe Press Virtualization Store, and get $5.00 back.

Details:
$5.00 will be sent via paypal to the first 5 people who purchase a shirt and complete the following criteria.
a. Shirt must be purchased with a x86Virtualization logo from cafe press
b. Must prove the shirt is from Cafe Press by forwarding the tracking information or order confirmation e-mail.
c. Must take a couple quality photos which can be used for promotions, no camera phones.
d. Must release permission for the photos to be used by x86Virtualization for promotional use, such as web promotions, marketing newsletter, and other web based medium.

Ben, from Microsoft, has just released his Virtualization book. Check it out on Amazon or your local bookstore.
Read more about it at Ben’s Virtualization Blog

What you will learn from this book
* All about the new features of Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1
* Steps for creating a virtual machine library for rapid and flexible deployment
* How to build applications that control and interact with Virtual Server using Visual Basic.NET, C#, and ASP.NET
* Ways to perform a P2V migration using Microsoft tools
* Methods for clustering and configuring virtual machines
* How to automate virtual machine operations using VBScript and PowerShell

Professional Microsoft Virtual Server 2005

DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT ENDORSING THE BREAKING OF COPYRIGHT LAWS AND I WRITE THIS SOLELY FOR THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION. THE LINKS ARE PROVIDED SOLELY AS PROOF OF CONCEPT, AND FOLLOWING THE INSTRUCTIONS MAY BE ILLEGAL IN SOME PLACES, SUCH AS EARTH.

The conversion from powerpc architecture to the Intel processor and the opening the kernel source has allowed people to do a little creative coding which allows OSX to run, with some modification, on a standard Intel x86 desktop. Apple has little reason to allow or support future development of OSX running on standard hardware, and has made efforts to prevent publishing of information regarding how to do this and the files needed to do the conversions. As OSX grows in popularity it is going to be hard for Apple to prevent this from happening.

Sources for reference:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=open+source+kernel+osx
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=osx+x86+vmware
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=x86+10.4.8

This is a modification of the script shown at the Virtualization lab. I have added the other popular vendor, so now it checks for VMware and Microsoft hardware bits, and returns a simple message of the status. It checks to see if Microsoft is the motherboard manufacturer or if the computer system is from VMware. Pretty simple, and quick.

Here is the code:
—Start of Code—

Dim virtual
virtual = false
Set objWMIService = GetObject(”winmgmts:\\.\root\cimv2″)

Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery(”Select * from Win32_BaseBoard”)
For Each objItem in colItems
if InStr(objItem.Manufacturer, “Microsoft”) then
wscript.echo “In Microsoft virtual machine”
virtual = true
end if
Next

Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery(”Select * from Win32_ComputerSystem”)
For Each objItem in colItems
If InStr(objItem.Manufacturer, “VMware”) Then
WScript.Echo “in VMware virtual machine”
virtual = true
End If
Next

if virtual = false then
wscript.echo “Not inside a VMware or Microsoft virtual machine”
end if

—End of Code—

Save as virtual.vbs and run from command prompt as cscript virtual.vbs (once in the correct directory)

These is so much more you could do with this script, such as checking for MAC address, or other known virtual hardware combinations. The idea of the script is just so know can run a quick check to make sure you are running on the hardware you think you are. I’m working on building hardware profiles of different guest operating system configurations, this may be done later this week. The reason for this is to better understand the variations between guest machines, and best match your virtual hardware needs with the options on the market.

Wrapping up the end of Day 3 in Redmond. The lab has been overview of the offering tips and tricks directly from the source.

During the second day of the lab I started to notice a little lag in the response to the mouse actions. Thinking it might just have been a background service or other VM running I didn’t think much of it. Until I tried to shutdown for the night, and realized how far inside of this virtual world I was in. The following is a screenshot outlining the levels of software we where running on the machines.

The base is a Intel P4 3.6 desktop.
Next is virtual pc and a local image.
Inside of that is standard remote desktop to the Virtual Server, Dual P4 3.6 Server
Finally we reach the inner level with VMRC running Virtual Machine VHD of 2k3.

More details and reviews to be published later this week once I return home.

« Previous entries