After cursing Linux for not seeming to have a decent open source virtual machine platform, I’ve found out that an application called VirtualBox is now open source.
Seeing as I’ve been quite comfortable using Virtual PC 2007 up to now, I thought that it would be nice to see if I can get Windows XP running nicely under Ubuntu.
You never know, this might mean my migration to Linux after all…
A humerous article appeared on slashdot today, with the typical Windows bashing that’s to be expected.
But for my own reference, and hopefully the benefit of others:
Windows Vista Home Basic and Home Premium cannot be ran on a virtual machine legally, whether that be Linux, Apple or even Windows 95.
Windows Vista Home Basic and Home Premium cannot run a virtual machine of itself using the same licence (eg. Installing Vista Home Premium onto a new PC, and then install it again in Virtual PC with the same product key).
This is the same as Windows XP Home.
Windows Vista Business, Enterprise and Ultimate have virtualisation rights, which means that it is legal to run the same copy of Windows, with the same licence key in a virtual machine.
Virtual PC 2004 (and 2007) do not have native PXE booters, which is a bit of a nuisance.
Although there is no sign of PXE support being implemented, Roudy Bob has come up with the PXE-Enabled boot disk for Virtual PC. This is a virtual floppy of a PXE boot disk that will allow your Virtual PC to connect to PXE servers.
Which is nice.