Virtualization is the technique of running a "guest" operating system inside an already-running OS; for example, Windows inside Linux, or vice-versa. This article compares four virtualization products available for Ubuntu Linux: the free, open source Qemu; the closed-but-free versions of VirtualBox and VMware-Server, and the commercial Parallels.

http://www.techthrob.com/tech/linux_virtualization.php
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This post has been edited by dserban: Jun 3 2008, 07:15 PM

Thanks for the link. I am getting ready to install a virtualizer, and I had tentatively selected VMware, but I was unaware of VirtualBox. I'll check it out.

There is one thing I would like to do that I have been told is easy in VMware, but I haven't tried it. That is to take a running program elsewhere on the network, and suck it into a VMware virtual machine. I have a Windows 2000 pro configuration on another computer whose capacitors have become "a little bit pregnant." The computer is 6 years old, I have a lot of highly customized, expensive software on it, and I do not wish to go through the agony of replacing the motherboard and getting Win2K to recognize all the new drivers. VMware is supposed to have an elegant solution to this -- it just sucks the running system on the other computer into a virtual machine on the new host.

Before I commit to VMware, I'll see if VirtualBox has anything comparable. If anyone else has information about how to "back up" one computer into a virtual machine on another computer, I would be very interested to hear about it.

What you are describing is being referred to in VMWare jargon as "creating a virtual appliance".

See if this link might be of help:

http://www.linux.com/feature/54411

section "Creating your own virtual image from scratch"
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This post has been edited by dserban: Jun 3 2008, 07:15 PM

Not sure it works directly that way. Even the appliance, I'm afraid, has a vmware machine as source.
Anyway, what I would suggest is :
1) make a ghost copy of your real machine
2) create your virtual machine, verify that it's operationnal (it boots, it connects to the Internet, etc...)
3) restore your ghots backup over the c: partition of your vmware system.
4) maybe your retored system will refuse reboot, because the disks and cpu's are different. At this moment, use the standard way : boot your vmware machine on the genuide Crosoft Windows CD, and choose "repair install" on the c: partition, it's supposed to repair all the missing hardware configuration. I did not try it yet, but another post here at asta says it's possible.

My suggestion : if you register at vmware site, you will have the full vmware workstation for a whole month, you will be able to try all these things.
And, yes, once finished, you simply copy all your files on a DVD, along with the vmware player (which is free at vmware site) and you will be able to put it on any machine.
Of course, if you want to modify something in the future, you will have to do it on a vmware workstation machine with full licence.

easy way to get a feel of virtualization technology is to create a virtual machine for vmware.
You can do that by visiting the site:


[link]www.easyvmx.com[/link]

without having to buy VMWare Workstation (Requird to create a machine otherwise.)

then you need to get a vmware player available free and start the vmx machine created in the above step.

pop in an ubuntu live CD and you are can boot ur newly created virtual machine within seconds.

the good thing is u can use the player both on linux and windows.