Comments on: The perfect geek linux/xp desktop setup with VMware?(non mac) http://davecormier.com/edblog/2007/11/10/the-perfect-geek-linuxxp-desktop-setup-with-vmwarenon-mac/ Education, post-structuralism and the rise of the machines Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:19:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: A. Mercer http://davecormier.com/edblog/2007/11/10/the-perfect-geek-linuxxp-desktop-setup-with-vmwarenon-mac/comment-page-1/#comment-75341 A. Mercer Sun, 11 Nov 2007 06:13:56 +0000 http://davecormier.com/edblog/2007/11/10/the-perfect-geek-linuxxp-desktop-setup-with-vmwarenon-mac/#comment-75341 I was going to write a post about my cruddy experience with an iBook this week. A volunteer working at my school had a slideshow on her iBook that she wanted to share. So I sent her out to get a video dongle. She bought two, neither of which had the right configuration for either the iBook or the DLP. So I had her copy the preso to a flash drive. It wouldn't let us run it on a Win-laptop because she had music from iTunes, and that machine did not have rights to the music (thank you for electronic licensing). I then tried to pull it into Adobe Premiere Elements to strip out the iTunes, and put some Creative Commons music in. For some reason, PE would NOT read the .mov file even though it says it supports the format. Maybe it was the music licensing? I have no idea. My final try was to convert the .mov to .avi or .wmv format using MMCovert, and ImTOO. MMCovert choaked, and ImTOO produced a movie that looked like it had been shot through clam chowder. I find windows annoying in many ways, by way a platform that has such a small market share is SO closed is puzzling to me. Maybe they should look as Lessing preso on TED? Thanks Dave for letting me blog on your site! I was going to write a post about my cruddy experience with an iBook this week. A volunteer working at my school had a slideshow on her iBook that she wanted to share. So I sent her out to get a video dongle. She bought two, neither of which had the right configuration for either the iBook or the DLP. So I had her copy the preso to a flash drive. It wouldn’t let us run it on a Win-laptop because she had music from iTunes, and that machine did not have rights to the music (thank you for electronic licensing). I then tried to pull it into Adobe Premiere Elements to strip out the iTunes, and put some Creative Commons music in. For some reason, PE would NOT read the .mov file even though it says it supports the format. Maybe it was the music licensing? I have no idea. My final try was to convert the .mov to .avi or .wmv format using MMCovert, and ImTOO. MMCovert choaked, and ImTOO produced a movie that looked like it had been shot through clam chowder.
I find windows annoying in many ways, by way a platform that has such a small market share is SO closed is puzzling to me. Maybe they should look as Lessing preso on TED?
Thanks Dave for letting me blog on your site!

]]> By: John Schinker http://davecormier.com/edblog/2007/11/10/the-perfect-geek-linuxxp-desktop-setup-with-vmwarenon-mac/comment-page-1/#comment-75156 John Schinker Sat, 10 Nov 2007 20:52:26 +0000 http://davecormier.com/edblog/2007/11/10/the-perfect-geek-linuxxp-desktop-setup-with-vmwarenon-mac/#comment-75156 This sounds very much like a test environment, where you can try out a lot of different things without totally screwing up you primary use (virtual) machine. As far as sandboxes go, this seems like a very reasonable way to do it. For most users, I think vmware is going a bit far, but it sounds like you have soma valid reasons for going to that extreme. I've not sure it's necessary to have raid 1. While it will protect you against a single drive failure, as you point out, there are a lot of other reasons why you need actual backups. Adding raid to the configuration may unnecessarily complicate things. I'm all for raid in a server environment, but it may be overkill here. The other thing that may be more difficult than anticipated is access to hardware devices. As a Windows user, I've grown accustomed to having fairly easy access to my hardware. Using the sound card for audio conferencing is easy. When I plug in a USB device, Windows usually recognizes it and just makes it work. I'd predict that the extra layer of abstraction provided by the virtual machine may make this kind of thing more difficult. I'm interested to hear how it goes. This sounds very much like a test environment, where you can try out a lot of different things without totally screwing up you primary use (virtual) machine. As far as sandboxes go, this seems like a very reasonable way to do it. For most users, I think vmware is going a bit far, but it sounds like you have soma valid reasons for going to that extreme.

I’ve not sure it’s necessary to have raid 1. While it will protect you against a single drive failure, as you point out, there are a lot of other reasons why you need actual backups. Adding raid to the configuration may unnecessarily complicate things. I’m all for raid in a server environment, but it may be overkill here.

The other thing that may be more difficult than anticipated is access to hardware devices. As a Windows user, I’ve grown accustomed to having fairly easy access to my hardware. Using the sound card for audio conferencing is easy. When I plug in a USB device, Windows usually recognizes it and just makes it work. I’d predict that the extra layer of abstraction provided by the virtual machine may make this kind of thing more difficult.

I’m interested to hear how it goes.

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