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[Pieter]

If you've followed the discussion that went on in the comments on "Why Linux Hasn't Gone Mainstream Yet", you've read about VirtualBox. Since version 1.6, it supports seamless integration. Well, I decided to go ahead and give it a try. I installed Windows XP in a virtual machine, installed the guest additions and tried the seamless integration feature.

Here are some of my findings:
- The speed has improved drastically and is comparable to near-native speed if your installation is still fresh. I don't know if that's because of a RAM upgrade I did to 504MB or because of recent improvements to VirtualBox.
- The Windows task bar cannot be hidden yet. Not so convenient, but I can live with that for now. It is after all a work in progress. What's more annoying is that it overlaps with Ubuntu's lower panel.
- You do have to boot up the virtual machine before you can use seamless integration, which is a bummer. Don't blame the VirtualBox developers for this; that would be technically impossible since it is virtualization software, not an emulator. This also means that a large portion of your RAM will be dedicated to keeping Windows running inside Linux, even when you're not using any Windows apps at the moment.
- It seems to conflict with Compiz Fusion. A quick internet research backed this up.



- It's not 'seamless' just yet. For example, your desktop will clutter up for a split second when moving a window. See it for yourself:

<a href="http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1170824&amp;amp;server=www.vimeo.com&amp;amp;show_title=1&amp;amp;show_byline=1&amp;amp;show_portrait=0&amp;amp;color=&amp;amp;fullscreen=1" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1170824&amp;amp;server=www.vimeo.com&amp;amp;show_title=1&amp;amp;show_byline=1&amp;amp;show_portrait=0&amp;amp;color=&amp;amp;fullscreen=1</a>

On a totally unrelated note: dang it, Vimeo is awesome! Just upload a video there and you'll see why. They've thought of everything to make it as smooth as possible!

[Richard]

Its good to see you trying virtualbox and all its features, am glad you tested it as well. And congratulations on your post "Why Linux Hasn't Gone Mainstream Yet" as i forgot to congratulate you in comments section of that post so well done again

You say you only have 504MB of RAM have though about running Openbox on that machine as i got given a old Dell Precision 330 (8 years Old)

Runs Ubuntu 8.04 (Latest Updates) built up from the command line/net install by using only the following packages

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get install xorg xterm gdm ubuntu-gdm-themes openbox openbox-themes obmenu pypanel kazehakase gksu synaptic
leafpad rox-filer audacious epdfview sylpheed mirage conky abiword obconf emesene xpad usplash usplash-theme-ubuntu
1.8ghz Pentium 4
512mb Ram
Diamond Fire GL2
210GB HD

Boots up in about 28 Seconds
Shut Downs in about 10-12 Seconds

[Pieter]

AbiWord? Why would you need that to build VirtualBox?
Have you experienced any conflicts with Compiz Fusion?

[Richard]

AbiWord? Why would you need that to build VirtualBox?
Have you experienced any conflicts with Compiz Fusion?

You don't  , i was just saying why don't you try a lighter WM like Openbox instead of GNOME as may be faster on your machine then i when on to say which applications i installed. The post was really meant to be two parts do you see now

[Pieter]

Oh, I get it! *blush*
I'm in the middle of my exam period so I have to keep my breaks short, which is why I just read over it briefly. For some reason I assumed that Openbox was an open-source version or a fork of VirtualBox, which of course makes no sense. Ah well.

Going back to the RAM issue, I don't know if I actually need to cut down on RAM usage to keep my VM running while doing other stuff. I'll check how much RAM it actually uses as soon as I find the time to reboot into Linux. And also, I still prefer eye candy over speed.

[Ryan Wagner]

Going back to the RAM issue, I don't know if I actually need to cut down on RAM usage to keep my VM running while doing other stuff. I'll check how much RAM it actually uses as soon as I find the time to reboot into Linux. And also, I still prefer eye candy over speed.

What these virtual machine apps need to figure out is a way to dynamically distribute more RAM to the operating system that you're currently using. That way if you stop using the virtual machine for a period of time it will push some of the contents from the RAM into virtual memory so that the host operating system can utilize it. Similarly if you're using the virtual machine a lot it can dedicate more memory to it. I think that's one of the only ways virtual machines will become overly useful to me.