[vox-tech] Apple & Linux

[Stuart Turner]

Matin:

Well, there is a performance issue, especially with the GUI and mouse movement, but VMWare 
has a series of add-on tools, that you install after the guest OS is loaded to markedly improve 
that. Subjectively my experience has been good and I'm overall very happy. 

My Intel Mac is a new Core 2 Duo so the dual processor helps markedly, but subjectively  I'm only 
comparing to my older G4's.  Performance is impressive, but I'm using Linux in VMWare to work 
on web application development mostly in  LAMPP and Java (servlets). Essentially the Fedora/
Ubuntu instances on my laptop are the staging environments for live systems, so I use a text 
editor and browser and therefore not doing much anyway. But running dual OS's this way is 
much better than a dual boot which I can't stand, even if the performance was markedly better.

I rarely used the Windows instance on the Mac - it is there to let me know that IF I need to have 
access to a Windows only application, I'm able to do that. For example, I need to use a Windows 
only UML modeling application (Enterprise Architect) for a project, even though I have Visual 
Paradigm for UML on the Mac. However, most of my Windows use (daily) is from a USB drive 
running Mojopac (http://www.mojopac.com). I had this initially installed on a 4GB iPod Mini, but 
was so impressed, I purchased a 2.5" Seagate 7200 RPM 100GB laptop drive and a $20 USB 
enclosure which I stash in my bag. I just plug this into any windows machine (home or work) and 
run Windows off that. I sync all my files from a central dedicatd FTP server (Buffalo Linkstation) 
using Transmit on the Mac and FileZilla and InSync on Windows. The performance off the Mojo 
USB drive is actually FASTER than the host machine I run it on at home. Very cool technology.

~ Stuart

> Hi Stuart
> 
> Thanks for the detailed information..... I "thought" these virtual
> machines
> (Parallels, VMWare, etc) work a lot slower. A few years ago I used VMWare
> on
> my 800MHz AMD-based PC to write/run a few small programming class
> projects
> and it was like 20X slower than when I installed Fedora as a secondary
> OS.
> But I guess the world has changed a lot :-)
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanderpool
> 
> I'm sure there is still some performance penalty. You said you are using
> those softwares; How much slower is it when you run some Win/Linux
> application in VMWare comparing to when you run it in a real Win/Linux
> OS?
> like 10%? it would be awesome then.....
> 
> Thanks,
> Matin
> 
> On 1/10/07, Stuart Turner <swturner at ucdavis.edu> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Matin Hashemi wrote:
> > > There is just one little problem here: I have to reboot the machine
> > > every time I need to use an application from the other OS :(
> > > Fortunately, I just learned that there is some Free BSD already
> > > installed in Apple OS X Tiger. Am I right?
> >
> > Matin:
> >
> > There are several options for virtualization under Mac OS X to run
> Linux
> > and/or Windows
> > concurrently. I'm running VirtualPC on my Powerbook (not available for
> > Intel-based Macs, but
> > rather moot anyway - it's a dog) and the following two applications on
> an
> > Intel machine
> > (MacBook Pro) running Fedora Core 6 and Ubuntu.
> >
> > 1) Parallels
> > http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/
> >
> > 2) VMWare Fusion
> > http://www.vmware.com/whatsnew/macsignupform.html
> >
> > A Beta program that is free for download and use...for now.
> >
> > Link to VMWare Appliances that include many Linux distributions,
> including
> > Fedora, Ubuntu,
> > OpenBSD and others:
> > http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/
> >
> > FreeBSD is not installed on Tiger, but Mac OS X runs on an a variant of
> > BSD called Darwin. Darwin
> > is essentially open source (BSD is an academic license, not a
> reciprocal
> > license like the GPL, and
> > allows Apple Inc to choose which components to remain open and which to
> > keep proprietary).
> >
> > ~ Stuart
> >
> > --
> > Dr. Stuart Turner
> > Health Informatics Graduate Program and
> > Biomedical Informatics Research & Consulting Service
> > University of California Davis Health System
> > http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/informatics
> > http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/bircs
> >
> > UCDHS-ASB
> > 2450 48th St, Suite 2685
> > Sacramento, CA 95817
> > 916.734.3857 (voice) | 916.734.3975 (fax)
> > 916.873.4325 (cell)  | stuart.turner.ucdavis (Skype)
> >
>