According to Microsoft, circa October 27, 2005, they will not support non-Microsoft virtualization solutions. My question is, when does that come up in conversation? If I was calling tech support the last thing I want to tell them is anything about the computer in front of me, besides information directly related to the problem. If I’m having a problem with Office, I don’t tell them the version of Internet Explorer I’m running. So why would I tell them I’m running their software inside of a virtual machine. That sounds like telling your internet provider you are trying to dial online with a Sega Dreamcast. Lets look at a possible noob tech support call:
Tech: Hello, thank you for waiting, how can I help you?
Noob: Yeah, I just bought a new mac pro system, downloaded a beta of parallels, and installed a pirated version of Vista. Then I borrowed a Office CD from a friend, and I can’t seem to get it to save to my Apple iPod as an external hard drive. Any reason why it won’t let me?
Tech: I’m sorry wrong number. Click.
Ok, maybe not like that, but a growing number of computer users have adopted virtualization as a way to make their life easier. Parallels software allows Mac users to boot up windows and run office in a native operating system. As a web developer it is crucial to test your site in as many browser as you expect visitors to be using. I took the opportunity today to boot up Knoppix inside of VM Player just to see how it looked. The site looked good. Now, Knoppix is a live cd, and I could have burned a copy, rebooted by computer, tweaked the wireless settings, got the webpage open, and saw it and rebooted back into Windows. Or booted the VM Player, open the browser, and been done. But I would have had to reboot to make any changes and then boot back into Knoppix, but with Virtualization I can just hit F5, and reload the page inside of Knoppix after making changes on the Windows desktop. This is where the draw to virtualization on the desktop is, having multiple operating systems running concurrently. If I can ALT+TAB between major operating systems then life is good.
Microsoft has changed opened up some, in the past 2 years. With the release of Vista, they now allow Virtualization of the operating system. If you purchased Ultimate, they allow you to virtualization the os, and if you where lucky enough to have Ultimate Enterprise you can virtualize upto 4 VM’s from that 1 original media. Now, why? If I want to virtualize an environment I want to run the cleanest simplest one possible. The whole idea of paravirtualization is to only duplicate the fluff and keep the core pure. Why would I want to virtualize an operating system with the following requirements:
Windows XP Hardware Requirements:
* System Requirements : PC with 300 megahertz (MHz) or higher processor clock speed recommended; 233-MHz minimum required;* Intel Pentium/Celeron family, AMD K6/Athlon/Duron family, or compatible processor recommended
* 128 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended (64 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features)
* 1.5 gigabyte (GB) of available hard disk space.*
* Super VGA (800 × 600) or higher resolution video adapter and monitor
* CD-ROM or DVD drive
* Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device (source)
Windows Vista Ultimate Requirements (Recommended):
* Processor 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
* System Memory 1 GB of system memory.
* GPU SVGA (1024×768)
* Graphics Memory 128mb and aero compatible
* Hard Drive 40GB
* Hard Drive Free Space 15GB
* Optical Drive DVD-RW
* Audio Yes
* Internet 1mb + connection (source)
If I’m going to virtualize a desktop environment for general testing, I think XP Home sounds like a much more efficient solution. Vista recommends almost as much ram as XP requires hard drive space. Microsoft had planned to release a Hypervisor and paravirtualized version of 2k and 2k3 server by some reports shortly after “longhorn server”, actual release date is still unknown. What will this mean for SWsoft, who’s currently marketing the only other version of paralized windows? Does Microsoft just want to dominate all aspects of the Virtualization Market? Time and next quarters stock holders statements will tell.
Sources:
Microsoft Support Policy Article ID: 897615
