Hello   
   Comments inline follow:

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: garcher{at}wdn.com
> 
> Bob St.John, Mark Dodel and Mike Snyder:
>
> snip<
> Based on your recommendations, I'll do a Boot Manager or AirBoot install
> of eCS 1.2 and Linux then wait a bit until InnoTek's Virtual Box gets
> through Beta and reaches General Release, especially when it comes to USB
> support. I'd still prefer to run eCS as host and Linux as a guest, not vice
> versa.
>snip 
>snip> 
> Windows as a VM guest:
> 
> Given W2K's nasty habit of trashing Boot Manager (BM) by overwriting the HD
> media descriptor in the MBR (unless SP2 is installed) maybe even as a VM
> image file (speculation- not tested), I'll resign myself to use W2K only on
> the stand-alone Fujitsu. A W2K install on the new box under a VM entails a
> messy use of a licensed upgrade version of W2K without SP's using my old
> Win95 full version licensed CD, and then download SP2 so I don't have to
> run DFsee after the image file install or after VM guest sessions to
> restore BM.


  I thought DFSee was able to fix W2k's propensity to do that.  No? In XP
you just use the Volume manager and dis-assign any drive letter to that
partition..Done.

> 

> (Random thought: Switching to XP or Vista for use as a guest under a VM is
> fraught with unknowns: What happens to XP/Vista after the 5th re-boot under
> a suspicious VM session that emmulates a pirated version of XP/Vista? It
> tries to call home to revalidate the registration. Being paranoid and
> protective of my hardware, I suspected SP3 for W2K would try the same thing
> and so never installed SP3, ending any use an unpatched W2K system online.
> All the more reason to move into eCS/Linux combos of browsers.)
> 

   XP is not a "phone home" problem but Vista is and is fraught
with many other problems not the least of which is high expense and extreme
hardware requirements.  Advice - stick with W2K or XP.   


> To get Win apps to run in a VM without installing W2K as a VM guest, I
> could, but won't, get the Deluxe version of Xandros Desktop for $99 and use
> the bundled CrossOver to run Windows apps to avoid the BM/MBR problem and
> take an unknown performance hit under emmulation.
>

   Or, even though Xandros has a lot going for it besides it's ability via
Crossover to run Windows apps, one could install the free version of
Xandros, or any other distro, and either use Wine (which isn't too bad
these days, or spend considerably less than $99 and buy whatever version of
Crossover/Cedega you need.  They run on any distro.
 

> Optionally, it would probably be easier to just migrate to apps on eCS and
> Linux that replace Win2K's often-used functions (CD/DVD burns, USB support,
> audio editing, support for a digital camera and photo image printing) and
> apply the KISS principle to my single-user computing.
> 

   All of the above mentioned functions are extremely well supported on
Linux and in almost every case for no charge, free as in "free
beer" as well as "free" as in freedom to modify.  Audio
editting on hobby level is a no-brainer though pro editting still requires
considerable computer knowledge and software building-rebuilding skills. 
USB is so well supported that many distros, like Xandros, automount any and
all USB devices and bring them up in a file manager window, all but
instantaneously on a decent machine.


> Time and learning curve-wise (not money-wise), I still don't see any easy
> or cheap solutions to a fully functional VM box running eCS, Linux and
> Win2K Pro with eCS as host until Virtual Box reaches general release,
> leading to Linux as first choice as a VM host?
>
 
  Agreed.

> Linux as host:
> 
> Linux as host seems to be the second-best option. However, Linux' short
> Kernel (6 months) cycles for some distros makes Linux a perpetual work in
> progress unless I am content to live on the trailing edge between stable
> kernel versions that now take about 5 years as occurred between
> 2.4 and 2.6. Frankly, I don't see the difference between doing kernel
> recompiles and Windows Service Packs. Nursing a working computer is not one
> of my priorities. Instead I'd prefer to support eCS' future survival, not
> join the exodus of Windows users migrating to Linux. Linux is becoming
> mainstream. It will survive handsomly. Learning still anonther OS to get
> about the same hardware support eCS offers is not attractive to me unless
> eCS cannot find a VM partner, and I can't live without a VM.
> 

   I don't understand your concern with new kernels since they are optional
and only desirable to fix some problem or support some as yet unsupported
hardware.  Since I have a fairly modern Athlon 64bit system with USB,
Firewire, SATA (including both hard and optical drives) and have run both
2.4.x and 2.6.x kernels, even those older than a year ago, with absolutely
everything supported, I'd sya that's not likely a problem for you.  Even
though PCI-Express just recently showed up as a separate config option, it
has always worked fine for me even prior to such kernels.
  If Linux is "a work in progress" because of mere (optional)
evolutionary improvement, then so are automobiles and that doesn't keep any
of us from searching out one model that does what we want most for the time
being.


> For daily work, stability is more important than Gee-Whiz bleeding edge
> technologies and that's why I'm still using old boxes and Warp 3 and 4 but
> want to end my "addiction" to Win2K to use 21st Century
multimedia. I've
> been a happy Warp user since 1994, kept a closet version of Win95 since
> 1995 and Win2K since 2000, and have lived virus-free into my real-world
> retirement years and intend to remain healthy in both environments for the
> duration.
> 
   Good on ya!

> I hope to see infrequent posts to the list as VM options for eCS evolve.
> Thanks for your thoughtful and helpful comments to clarify options for my
> computing conundrum.
> 
> George Archer
> 
  Hope this gives you some food for thought as well as encouragement.

Jimmy 



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



 
Yahoo! Groups Links

 To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/os2hardware/

 Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

 To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/os2hardware/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

 To change settings via email:
    mailto:os2hardware-digest{at}yahoogroups.com 
    mailto:os2hardware-fullfeatured{at}yahoogroups.com

 To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    os2hardware-unsubscribe{at}yahoogroups.com

 Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
 

---