Virtual Box
Shown above, a screenshot of VirtualBox with Windows XP installed, running Tweetdeck on a Macbook Pro. Wow!
I hate it when I find out about something late at night…it means I’ll be up until I get it done. And, New Year’s eve, when the family has passed out, is the perfect time (and who wants to be outside illegally popping fireworks in the cold? ahem…)
That said, wow, how come I didn’t know about Virtual Box before? It certainly would have saved some money. My virtualization software is VMWare Fusion (or Parallels) on the Mac, and it’s worked great. And, it’s cross-platform so I can run it on different operating systems. However, when you can use a free, open source software application and replace the commercial one, that’s even better!
To get started, read this beginner’s guide from Lifehacker folks. Here’s an excerpt from their post:
Why would you want to run a virtual machine on your computer? Plenty of reasons:
- You like using one OS, but need just an app or two from another running in their natural environments—Office or Photoshop in Windows (nine times out of 10), a light-on-resources game, or maybe even some uber-cool Linux app.
- You want to try out some new software, but would rather not chance it mucking up the pretty decent system you’ve got right now.
- Web sites that don’t play nice with the operating system you’re running (we’re looking at you, almost every streaming site except Hulu and YouTube).
- You’re intrigued at the idea of trying out a Linux desktop, but the word “partitioning” doesn’t sound like how you want to spend a Saturday afternoon.
Anyways, check out the intro and share your successful Virtual Box installation! Thanks to mrichme for his comment pointing out Virtual Box.
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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure