Running Windows and Linux parallely

[nepcker]

Hey guys,

I have a Mac and a PC. On my mac, I run Mac OS X and Windows using Parallels Desktop. I can switch between OS X and Win without the need of reboot. I hate the concept of dual-booting. That's why I never used Apple's Boot Camp to run Windows on my mac.

I want to do the same for my PC. I want some way to run Linux and Windows at the same time, at their native speeds. It can be either Windows as an window under Linux or vice verca.

It is possible on a PC? Please help.

 

[mehulved]

Well there's gygwin under windows and wine under linux but i really doubt if either of these will help. I guess the best will be to use vmware or just dual boot.

 

[praka123]

Vmware?

 

[sam_1710]

try these in windows:
parallels : *www.parallels.com/
Vmware : *www.vmware.com/
VirtualBox : *www.virtualbox.org/

 

[khattam_]

VMware....

Use Beta version of VMware to install and configure your OS and when beta expires... then use a VMware player to run your OS...

You can also use third party freeware tools to modify\create your virtual machines....
Or you may also opt to buy VMware.... Such a great software....

 

[mehulved]

vmware server is free.

 

[Garbage]

yup, try VMware. It's BEST !

 

[kin.vachhani]

vmware is the best option for running parallel....and should have minimum 1Gb ram..

 

[mehulved]

min. 1 GB of RAM!
I run 2 virtual machines together unless I have azureus or some heavy java software running and I have just 768MB of RAM.

 

[ambandla]

Best option is to use vmware but you cannot run linux at native speed. There will be some slowness unless you have loads of RAM (2gig or more)

 

[nepcker]

I just have 512 MB on my PC -- my mac's got 2GB, but I want to put my PC into some use.

Any software that will give me native speeds with half gigs of RAM?

 

[ambandla]

@nepcker,

Use Redhat Linux 8 on Vmware (RAM set to 196MB). That much RAM is more than enough for RHL 8.

 

[nepcker]

Can't I run Ubuntu? I'm not an experienced Linux user, since I've been using the much, much more user-friendly Mac OS X for years. Near-native performance will do.

 

[ambandla]

Even for Ubuntu, go for the previous version. The latest version needs atleast 256MB of RAM.

You can test latest version on Vmware but giving 50% of RAM to Vmware will make Windows crawl.

 

[mehulved]

With 512 MB of RAM it'd be quite a lot diffcult to run both linux and windows at the same time.
Best will be dual boot IMO or use some light weight window manager in linux. And please don't follow that stupid advice and use red hat 8. It's way too outdated and will only cause problems.
If you want to use ubuntu, install something like fluxbox or xfwm, but still with windows XP running i'd be a bit difficult with less than a GB of RAM. Maybe if you can add another 256MB even, it'd be still good enough to get you decent performance from the guest OS.

 

[ambandla]

And please don't follow that stupid advice and use red hat 8. It's way too outdated and will only cause problems.

Mind your words mate. Yes. Redhat 8 is old but its very very low on resources and was a big hit at that time due to it's stability. My suggestion is to install RHL 8, upgrade the kernel to 2.6 (RHL 8 uses 2.4), which is not a herculean task. This way, nepcker can use the 128-196MB or RAM for VMWare and keep both linux and windows running at good speed.

There are couple of linux distros available that are good but most of them are again based on either Redhat or Suse or Debian or someother major distro. (FYI, Ubuntu is based on Debian).

I also mentioned in my post to go for older version of any distro that is low on resources.

 

[mehulved]

It was good at that time. And that time is gone long past. Yeah tell a newbie to upgrade it to latest kernel and fix all the dependancies and all. It will all come up to the same thing more or less. It's rather more saner and wiser to use a light weight window manager. Red Hat 8 is deprecated and has had no bug fixes/patches for a long time. So, it's not secure at all. And not too usable as well.
Older versions is not the solution. Linux is not damn windows. I can run 2 instances of linux as guest on vmware with just 768MB of RAM. The trick is to just use a light window manager. Only place that's been a hindrance for me is the processor cos i only have a 2GHz processor and it gets a bit too loaded when running 3 OS'es at a time.
So, the advice of running old version of linux is stupid and I am gonna call it stupid.

 

[ambandla]

looks like you are in good mood for bullying. have a great day

 

[nepcker]

I wouldn't mind the old version, but it should be an stable release.

I'm currently dual-booting and hate that system -- I have to restart to get to other operating operating system.

Please suggest me a software that is light on system resources and gives me good performance (near-native speeds will do).

 

[mehulved]

Firstly no software whatsoever can get you to run windows XP and linux, both at the same time, to run at their native speeds. No software can ever replace hardware period.
Red Hat 8 was a good OS at a certain point of time. But, it's been unmaintained for quite a few years, I'd guess the last support it saw was in 2000-2001. The world has changed quite a lot since then.
You can also talk to red hat community on irc.freenode.net #redhat
BTW, i just went there and this is the message that they've put up on the channel

[#redhat] If you're using Red Hat Linux, you need to strongly consider upgrading to Fedora Core. All versions of Red Hat Linux are end-of-lifed. Doing stupid things with Red Hat Linux entitles you to mocking, taunting, and silencing (free of charge). If you're running Red Hat Enterprise Linux, you might want to look in #rhel.

If you'll still believe I am bullying and what I am saying is wrong go ahead at your own risk.