GNU/Linux operating systems and the Free Software Foundation

[Oren]

You guys do know that for those "must have XP/Vista applications" it's very easy to install VirtualBox under Linux, install XP into it, have a shared folder, and use the programs without resorting to reboots or different machines. I don't use VirtualBox very often, but it appears to run as fast (or nearly so) as native XP.

This is the first I've heard of VirtualBox... It could turn out to be a real convenience. Thanks!

Edit: Looks like a good way to run XP Pro inside Ubuntu Studio. ...And a way to run Dynebolic and MusixGNU on my Athlon machine without having to replace the big Asus video/graphics card.

[bvdp]

Let us know how VirtualBox works for you. The only thing I've not been able to figure out is how to connect my MIDI ports inside an application running VB. Let me know if you do!

[folderol]

At work we have an ancient program we occasionally have to use that won't work on anything later than windows98. Works fine under virtualbox

[Oren]

Oren, could you have a look if python is in the Dynebolic distribution ?

Kara,

Venturing into the harrowing world of the Linux terminal window, I've managed to come up with this information regarding python in Dynebolic...

[d:b]~ #python
Python 2.4.2 (#1 Oct 8 2005, 19:59:46)
[GCC 3.4.4] on linux2

...what do you think, are we cool?

[kara]

Oren, could you have a look if python is in the Dynebolic distribution ?

Kara,

Venturing into the harrowing world of the Linux terminal window, I've managed to come up with this information regarding python in Dynebolic...

[d:b]~ #python
Python 2.4.2 (#1 Oct 8 2005, 19:59:46)
[GCC 3.4.4] on linux2

...what do you think, are we cool?

Very cool ! And I'm happy to see you are venturing in the terminal world 
2.4 is cool, it is a good version, although I don't understand why they didn't pack the 2.4.3 which is the latest 2.4 stable ?
Still, they are a couple of versions behind, 2.5.xx and 2.6.XX

I think I should make time to have a closer look at that dynebolic distrib....

Thanks for the info Oren

k
 

[bvdp]

Just wanted to add a bit about using VirtualBox to run XP on a linux host ....

I was trying to debug MMA under XP and really didn't want to go though the bother of actually installing MMA on an XP computer. But, I have virtualbox on my linux box ... so here is what I did:

1. Set up VB to support shared folders. This is done by installing VB Guest Additions.

2. Create a folder in linux. I called my vbox-share

3. In my vbox-share folder I created a link to my MMA tree. Simple, cd to the vbox-share and type in:

            ln -s ~/src/bv/mma

and you now have a symbolic link in vbox-share called mma pointing to the directory /home/bob/src/bv/mma. That's where my mma stuff is ... on a user system the address will be different and you might have to be root to set it up.

4. Start up XP in VB.

5. Follow the instructions in the VB manual to set up a shared folder ...  There's a couple of ways to do this, but basically you're setting up a network drive in XP. Again, refer to the VB docs.

6. Done.

Now, I can open a cmd window in XP, change my working directory to G:mma and it's all there.

What is even cooler, I think, is that I can have an editor running in linux making changes to the MMA source code or song files; flip back to XP; test; and flip back. Just one set of files to worry about.

Oh, when I'm done I click the X in the windows screen and have VB save the state of windows. A few seconds later it's gone. Now, when I call XP back up it takes about 5 seconds and it's there with all my windows, etc.

Even plays audio. Have the vanbasco midi player playing while at the same time amarok on linux is playing streaming radio.


Let me tell you, if you are trying to do stuff for multiple platforms this is very cool stuff!