[mdlug] Moving to Debian 64bit - Lessons Learned?

[Robert Adkins]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mdlug-bounces at mdlug.org 
> [mailto:mdlug-bounces at mdlug.org] On Behalf Of Wojtak, Greg
> Sent: Friday, July 31, 2009 8:28 AM
> To: MDLUG's Main discussion list
> Subject: Re: [mdlug] Moving to Debian 64bit - Lessons Learned?
> 
> VM ware itself is pretty easy to work with.  I've also had 
> really good luck with Sun's Virtualbox product 
> (http://virtualbox.org), and to top it all off it is free.  
> I'm not sure how good performance is if you plan on running 
> high-end games or anything like that.
> 

  I think that there is another Open Source Virtual Machine package out
there too. I don't recall the name at the moment, if I have some time later,
I'll look it up.

  You will not be able to get decent quality performance for 3D
Applications, from what I understand. There has been some serious work
towards making that possible though.

  Intel and AMD both have features in their newer multi-core processors
designed specifically for VM applications. These need to be activated in the
BIOS and supposedly, with a properly written VM host application, the VM can
access the underlying hardware in the PC and utilize accelerated 3D
Graphics.

  I have only started reading about this as being a feature built into the
new Microsoft Virtual Machine software that is designed to be
used/integrated with Windows 7 Ultimate Edition. I think that I may actually
have that feature in my rig and I have been playing with the 64-bit Win7
Ultimate and will be giving that a look. AFAIK, this Microsoft
implementation may only provide the hardware acceleration access for the
virtual Windows XP Pro that they are providing with this VM software.

  -Rob