phor2zero Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 Are there any Virtualization products available that boot themselves? I'd like to run multiple OS's on my system, but I don't see why I would want a host OS just to run the virtualization software. Like VMWare in tab-mode but without any "host" OS other than VMWare itself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Korrupted Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 I doubt that there is a virtualization product that does something like that, but if you would want to do something like that, why not look at a minimalist OS like Damn Small Linux? It's a 50 MB OS that can run Linux programs no problem. Just my 2 cents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ouch Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 VMWare ESX Server, but it only runs on very specific hardware configurations. It's unlikely to run on Intel Macs... ESX Server runs natively on server hardware, without a host operating system. The ESX Server virtualization layer is a highly compact and efficient operating system kernel entirely developed by VMware for optimum virtual machine performance. This allows ESX Server to fully manage the hardware resources and provide the highest levels of security and performance isolation. ESX Server also incorporates a service console based on a Linux 2.4 kernel that is used to boot the ESX Server virtualization layer. It also runs ESX Server administration applications. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Nonny Moose Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 The entire point of virtualization systems is to make a guest OS go through a host OS. So the answer is theoretically no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gooki Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 I believe Xen does what you want to a certain extent. Problem is Xen has no GUI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
learning_bird Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 I doubt that there is a virtualization product that does something like that, but if you would want to do something like that, why not look at a minimalist OS like Damn Small Linux? It's a 50 MB OS that can run Linux programs no problem. Just my 2 cents. You can't run Damn Small Linux as a Host OS on VMWare and most other virtualization solutions ( though I don't know them all ). The best bet would be make a trimmed down Red Hat or Suse Host OS and run the desired Virtual Machines on top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veeoh Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 we used to (until i got pissed off with chase the dependancy) run VMware GSX server on a very cut down RedHat 9 installation so DSL /may/ work. =V= Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phor2zero Posted April 11, 2006 Author Share Posted April 11, 2006 ESX Server looks promising, but because it's totally geared to networking and server operations, there's really no indication on VMWare's site if an XP or Vista Virtual Machine would make a good gaming system. I know running under virtualization I'll get only about 95% performance (with a virtualization capable processor) but with truly topnotch hardware that shouldn't be an issue at all. I'm still trying to determine if XP or Vista would have direct access to SLI video cards from inside ESX Server. I can't seem to find any information on ESX Server that doesn't relate to it's designed purpose. I suppose if I absolutely had to go with a host OS, the preferred one would be OpenBSD. I intend to run 3 OS's simultaneously: Windows Vista -- for gaming, finance (no Microsoft Money available on Mac.), and whatever else. Anonym OS -- for surfing the net (an OpenBSD based livecd) Mac OS X -- for whatever, I still can't tell what it can do that XP can't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veeoh Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 Windows Vista -- for gaming, finance (no Microsoft Money available on Mac.), and whatever else. good luck - it will be impossible to play 3d games under vmware - its not that kind of system. It uses VMWare drivers not the vendors (ATi/Nvidia etc) so this isnt going to work, sorry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ouch Posted April 12, 2006 Share Posted April 12, 2006 Yeah you won't get any 3d accelleration out of a vmware solution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phor2zero Posted April 12, 2006 Author Share Posted April 12, 2006 After playing a bit with Vista in VMWare I've confirmed that you're correct about graphics in VMWare (not that I doubted you, just had to check it out) It's very disappointing. Perhaps one of the other virtualization solutions like Xen or Parallels will be able to offer full virtualization in the future. Since video games in full screen mode generally take full control of the video card (we know this is true in Vista, because running an OpenGL video game will disable WDM, which won't matter because it will renable when you close the game) I wonder why VMWare can't do the same and pass on the control to the VM OS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Korrupted Posted April 12, 2006 Share Posted April 12, 2006 You can't run Damn Small Linux as a Host OS on VMWare and most other virtualization solutions ( though I don't know them all ). The best bet would be make a trimmed down Red Hat or Suse Host OS and run the desired Virtual Machines on top. I have a DSL distro running in Q, but Q and VMware are different, so meh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Nonny Moose Posted April 12, 2006 Share Posted April 12, 2006 Mac OS X -- for whatever, I still can't tell what it can do that XP can't. Not get viruses? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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