Re: 64 or 32 bit Win 7

[Paul Lagasse pglagasse@xxxxxxxx]

On 05/12/2010 01:54 PM, J R FOX wrote:
--- On Wed, 5/12/10, Robert Holmgren wrote:
 
VMware, which is not free software
   
Actually there are two free versions, which can both create
VMs: VMware Player3 and VMware Server. And I'd evaluate
them, too --> I'd endeavor to evaluate every possibility.
  
Not much recent mention of Virtualbox. I did see a very nice
demo of it a couple years back, but the last I heard they
seemed to be halting development. Is this option now out of
the running ? (It was also free.)
 
I can't speak for Windows, but in Linux Virtualbox is free and easily
installed in a number of distros; in Ubuntu (at least when last I
installed Vbox) it's recommended you get the version from Vbox's website
rather than the version in U.'s repositories. In Ubuntu Virtualbox seems
to be easier to set up and manage than VMware Server 2, but I only use
it for limited purposes (testing new Linux distros, online banking,
occasional running of WinXP). It's hard for me to compare Vbox to VMware
because it's not an apples to apples comparison -- our home installation
of VMware runs on a newer machine running an older version of Ubuntu,
while Virtualbox runs on an older machine with a newer version of
Ubuntu. That said, I think the average user would have an easier time
using Virtualbox 3 than VMware Server 2 in Ubuntu; the former is better
integrated and does not need re-configuration after a kernel update --
VMware does need the latter in Ubuntu 8.04.
Neither is used to run Xy4; that's on Dosemu, which integrates well with
Ubuntu with less tweaking and starts up faster (and Dosemu does run on
the 64 bit version of Ubuntu, which I'm going to try out at some point).

But of course, none of this is pertinent to WoW.
 Life without Photoshop would be no life at all.
  
So, I guess GIMP was never really a serious alternative ?

I have to say upfront that I've had really minimal exposure to
'Nix apps -- Rafe or someone else should comment there -- but
in what little I've seen there seems to be a lot more work
involved in setting them up, and the UI for them tends to be
rather lacking in Win or Mac terms. While it would be great if
free 'Nix apps could give their Win counterparts a serious run
for the money, it hasn't really happened yet and I'm doubtful
it ever will. And only a portion of that is due to market
share and marketing.
 
I don't think GIMP comes close for a Photoshopper, given all the Linux
salivating online when it was suggested by Mark Shuttleworth, after
Adobe's dustup with Jobs, that Photoshop would be welcomed by Ubuntu if
ported to Linux (Ubuntu has other proprietary partners). But I also
think this is a tools and technical issue more than a UI issue, from
what I've read.
As for comparing Nix to Win to Mac, it all depends on what you use and
want to use. Most days I use Xy4 on Dosemu, Firefox, and Thunderbird
with one or two other programs tossed in. And I'm really only ever
forced to use Windows when someone must have a Word file submitted or
when I use Turbotax.

Paul Lagasse