Noble R.M. wrote:
> Thanks chaps..... I'm overwhelmed by your collective interest
>
> 1. I have a HP Pavilion with Intel dual processor (PC World) *_pre
> installed_* VISTA .....about 3 months old
> 2. Canon Pixma MP800R printer/scanner (not Fax) works like a dream on
> MS... printer coughs and sputters on CUPS and/or on Turboprint and
> sometimes scans via Open office but not often. ....works on USB
> 3. Downloaded VMware PLAYER from Ubuntu repository
> 4. Have a spare USB hard drive if of any interest
>
> Does this help any?
>
VMware Player does pretty much what it says in that you can take a
suitable image and play it back, creating a clone of the original image
on your machine which you can then go on to modify.
Given that (I think) you want to run Windows on Ubuntu I think you will
run into issues obtaining a suitable pre-compiled Windows image to load
up into VMware Player running on Ubuntu. There are some alternative
images available elsewhere if you want to experiment and get a feel for
VMware, however:
http://www.thoughtpolice.co.uk/vmware/
http://www.vmware.com/appliances/
In order to create an image of your own you need to be running VMware
Server or Workstation and have the install CDs of the OS that you want
to install to hand. You effectively boot into the install routine and
create a VM that you can then play back in Server, Workstation or Player.
> Sounds like VM is a bit terrifying and unpredictable.....am looking for
> an easy life!
VMware is pretty stable and straightforward with a nice gui; the other
alternatives under discussion are less polished in that regard and
require a little more expertise to use from what I understand.
VMware Player/Server is available for Windows (not sure about Vista
though), so you could always install it on there and have a play with it
if you wanted. It's not as scary as you might think from the discussion.
Sean
