On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 7:54 PM,<[email protected]> wrote:
I have set up multi-boot and virtual machines before and I'm looking to do this
again. I'm most interested in minimal hardware... as in can this be done from
a low end netbook like say an ASUS eeePC.
Possibly, though I am not a fan of the Atom processors.
There is some choice with regard to processors and I see the atom porcessors
seem to not support the virtualized instructions Intel offers on some more
expensive and faster and obvioulsy more capable CPUs.
Correct. You could install VMWare ESXi 3.5 on this.
Can we still successfully run a virtual machine - say with VMWare or Virtual
Box or perhaps something OSS? If we can what do we lose?
I have not tried to do this on hardware that did not have the
virtualization support. ESXi 3.5 is the only exception to this, but
it takes over the whole machine, meaning that you would not be able to
use it as a workstation as well.
What do we gain with a more capable CPU?
A lot. The Atom sucks. It is not energy efficient enough due to the
crappy chipset it is paired to be worth the performance hit. A ULV
Core2 is a better bet.
Also, while the Atoms are 64 bit capable, they have been throttled to
only support 2 GiB of RAM. So if you want more than 2 GiB of RAM you
need to use a different CPU.
You can also get a more capable chipset, the Atom is currently paired
with a crappy chipset that draws more energy than the Atom CPU itself.
If you were looking for a small form factor but capable machine you
can get a P55 based Core i5/i7 quad core CPU in a mini-itx form
factor. uATX is pretty much the standard for P55s.>
last time I did this was in the last century and on a 233 mHz pentium (I or II
- I dont recall) I was able to run Linux w/ Oracle and and NT in a VM. It
worked fine.
Not really an Apples to Apples comparison.
Now I see something like an Atom 1.6 GHz should run about as fast as a 2+ GHs
Pentium 4 so I would think even such a low power system should be a candidate
for a very decent testbed... I'm not looking for gaming... but I probably will
want compilers.
Nope, the architecture of the Atom is very simple, so you can't really
compare it to a P4. IMO you are better off with an 800 Mhz PIII than
a 1.6 Ghz Atom.
I'm also interested in OSX and I see apparently the ASUS 900 series is pretty
compatible... but I know next to nothing about this.
Apple keeps screwing with their updates to break compatibility with
non-apple hardware. I would not use any modern OS if I was not
confidant in it's ability to keep up to date. Despite what Apple
zealots say, they need regular security patching as well.
I can't see a good reason to use OSX unless it came with the hardware.
OS's I want to run include NT, possibly newer winders but not necessarily. I'm
not a winders fan anyways.
Again, with no updates to NT I would stay away.
OSX and maybe even an old DOS machine so I can run some old software
and not bother with a port! The old software includes a serial I/F
for a calcomp plotter. It would be nice to use it again. Of course I
can port this
Dosbox. Runs on Linux and Windows. Emulates a DOS computer. Pretty
awesome actually (it is how I play Master of Orion I and II on modern
OSs).
to Linux if I really want. But that old Calcomp code is about as ugly as it
gets!
