12 replies to this topic

[edborg]

I need some basic info on virtual machines, particularly VMWare versus qEmu.

I've been using qEmu for a while with no problem, and know that it's free, small ... and works.

I've now searched also information on VMWare, for which scripts have been developed in the forum, and seen that it's not free (though there's a free viewer), really huge ... and couldn't make it work.
Besides, it installed a lot of files and drivers on my PC, that was quite difficult to eliminate after uninstall.

What are its advantages, if any, over qEmu?

Thanks
edborg

P.S. Before posting here I've searched for info on the VMWare site, but couldn't quickly get a clear understanding of the features of their different products.

[philon]

I'm not a MS fan at all but for testing Winbuilder or Pebuilder iso's I prefer VirtualPC. It is free now. Give it a try! On my pc VirtualPC boots these iso's much faster than Qemu or VMware. Big advantage of VirtualPC (and VMWare): You easily can connect to the host system and mount the shares. VirtualPC does not install so many services as VMware does.

philon

[Alexei]

I need some basic info on virtual machines, particularly VMWare versus qEmu.

I suppose you need "some basic info" about differences to end-user.
In two words: both VMWare and VirtualPC are faster, better documented, and don't have problems with networking.
Potentially, QEMU is better because it's emulator, meaning, it can run anything without hanging up (even another virtual machine), though in prectice it still doesn't emulate higher level CPUs correctly.
For testing WB builds I would recommend Virtual PC because it boots faster (you can use my "Run on VPC" script).

Alexei

[edborg]

Thanks you both.
Yes, the absence of networking is an important limitation in qEmu (and perhaps speed).
But I thought there was more, due to the fact that qEmu is 1MB all included, no install, whereas VMWare Player has a 29MB installation file.

I'll have a look into VirtualPC as well, thanks.
Are you suggesting VirtualPC2004 or VirtualPC2007 beta?
edborg

[was_jaclaz]

Yes, the absence of networking is an important limitation in qEmu

Actually QEmu HAS networking capabilities.

If you use QEmu manager, the interface is VERY similar to VMware one.

It is however a bit slower than other VM machines.

About VMware, you can use the FREE player together with a manually created VM or with the help of some "VM building" apps:
http://www.virtualiz...chine-with.html
http://dcgrendel.the....net/vmbuilder/
http://sanbarrow.com/vmxbuilder.html
http://www.easyvmx.com/

However virtual PC (2004, have't tested 2007) seems to be a trifle faster than VMware....

jaclaz

[Brito]

Nice links jaclaz!

It's good to have an alternative like Alexei's Virtual PC script to use on projects, looking on the vistaPE - it's not yet supported by qEmu, would also be good if a vmware script was available too..

[philon]

I'll have a look into VirtualPC as well, thanks.
Are you suggesting VirtualPC2004 or VirtualPC2007 beta?
edborg

I suggest VirtualPC 2004, VirtualPC 2007 beta is supposed to support Vista better than VirtualPC 2004, but I discontinued testing it because it often frozed and stopped everything.

Concerning networking with Qemu: It is easy to connect to the Internet but almost impossible to connect to the host or to the local network.

philon

[curare]

It's good to have an alternative like Alexei's Virtual PC script to use on projects, looking on the vistaPE - it's not yet supported by qEmu, would also be good if a vmware script was available too..

I made a vmware player script already... But I'm not sure if vmware supports Vista.
Anyway, it can be easily converted for workstation...
See my post here..

[Brito]

...
See my post here..

..

Sorry, you're right - hopefully the next beta version will finally allow everyone to check out new scripts whenever available - didn't had much time to test them when they were published and forgot it..

Very good looking script layout!!

[hectorma]

qemu emulate a system not similar for the host computer. Vmware uses hardware of pc system. It is the reason becuse vmware is more fast that qemu.
free alternative: virtualbox. it run cimilar to vmware. Is more fast that qemu.

[Brito]

Virtual Box is very good indeed.

Installing a full windows XP on a virtual box emulated machine is done very quickly and there is also a version for installing Virtual Box directly on ubuntu.

When compared to VMWARE or VirtualPC I would definitively prefer Virtual Box.

Qemu is excellent because of the small size and the ease on testing XP based boot disks but won't (yet) run with the newer WinPE 2.x

[wendy]

It also depends on what OS and version you want to run.

For older OS/2 versions, and DOS, i would reccomend VirtualPC, although this is not particularly good on sub-emulations (DOS inside OS/2 or Windows enhanced mode). I've tried virtualbox, but only on some operating systems. The newer VMs tend to have poorer support for older operating systems.

If you want real IBM kit, try http://www.hampa.ch/pce/index.html . It runs DOS apps, including those using ROMBASIC. Its default is to boot to drive c:, but a copy of pce.bat can be made, and the switch '-b 00' added to make it boot from drive a:

[paraglider]

Innotek the writers of Virtual box have been acquired by Sun.