[orca-list] Virtual Machine Software (was: Accessible distros)

[John G Heim <jheim math wisc edu>]

Yeah, VMware has a disincentive to put out a good linux desktop 
virtualization package. They don't really want you running virtual 
machines on your desktop at all. What they want is for you to buy their 
operating system, ESXI,  and set up a VMware cluster. Or better yet, 
subscribe to their cloud service.

Personally, I use virtualbox even though I am  a backup VMware cluster 
admin. We have other people who mostly do that but even though I am 
partially responsible for a VMware cluster, when I need to create a vm 
for myself, I use virtualbox. I really like virtualbox because it has a 
really nice command line interface that seems to give you access to all 
points of configuring a virtual machine. If there is anything you cannot 
do at the command line, I am unaware of it.

But the one thing that I am worried about with virtualbox is that it was 
bought by Oracle a few years ago and therefore the developers now have 
the same disincentive VMware has.  Every linux user making  virtual 
machines on their desktop is another person who is not a customer for 
their cloud service.

In fact, one might ask why even a fairly sophisticated linuxx user would 
even want to install VMware or virtualbox on their desktop. Why not just 
spin up a digitalOcean droplet? Well, for me, it's because I'd have to 
give them a credit card. It's not really even the money, it's the hassle.

On 12/3/18 8:01 AM, Janina Sajka via orca-list wrote:
> Nick Wood writes:
> > Linux is far from perfect - and I hate how Fedora can just drop a new kernel
> > version into the regular software updates which can completely break VMWare
> > - but overall I am very happy with my setup.
> I haven't run VMware on a Linux host in 20 years, but this sensitivity
> to kernel versions was a most frustrating aspect of reliance on VMware then. So, it's disappointing
> to hear that VMware still depends on particular Linux kernel versions.
>
> Not only did VMware require a particular kernel version, but their
> modules supporting newer kernel versions tended to trail kernel releases
> by weeks, if not months. So, it was much worse than simply updating the
> VMware software on a kernel upgrade--you had to watch and wait for a
> VMware update release--and more money might be required, as VMware is
> not floss.
>
> I am contemplating going back to an environment using virtual machines,
> but I'm not about to go with VMware again for these reasons.
>
> So, since we're on the topic, let me simply ask: Why not KVM/qemu?
>
> Or, if one must go commercial, Virtualbox?
>
> Best,
>
> Janina
>
> > Regards,
> >
> > Nick
> >
> > On 02/12/2018 16:49, Christopher Chaltain via orca-list wrote:
> > > When we ran Linux and Windows at work, this was about 15 years ago, we
> > > ran Windows at the host operating system and Linux in the virtual
> > > machine. We found that Windows liked to assume it had exclusive use of
> > > the hardware so it was more problematic getting it to run in a virtual
> > > machine. Linux, on the other hand, seemed to run much better and with
> > > fewer problems in the virtual machine.
> > >
> > >
> > > Since then, for home use, I've run Linux on the bare metal and Windows
> > > in a virtual machine, and I found this to be satisfactory. Of course, I
> > > had to have the hardware resources to support this.
> > >
> > >
> > > Bottom line is that I'd listen to Kyle.
> > >
> > >
> > > On 12/2/18 8:42 AM, Kyle via orca-list wrote:
> > > > If you must run a VM, I would always recommend running Linux as the
> > > > host and running your work VM on top of Linux. The Linux host is far
> > > > more stable, and it's much easier to roll back a VM that goes wonky
> > > > than it is to have to reinstall your host OS and potentially lose
> > > > the VM in the process.
> > > >
> > > > Regarding which distro to use, I think it's mostly personal
> > > > preference, as GNOME and MATE desktops are both quite accessible
> > > > using Orca. That said, I think Fedora Live Workstation is probably
> > > > your best bet, as you can just press alt_super_s to start Orca as
> > > > soon as the OS boots up. I no longer have an x86_64 machine to test
> > > > this, but the last time I did, the installer worked pretty well.
> > > > ~Kyle
> > > > _______________________________________________
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> > > > GNOME Universal Access guide:
> > > > https://help.gnome.org/users/gnome-help/stable/a11y.html
> > > > Log bugs and feature requests at http://bugzilla.gnome.org
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> > GNOME Universal Access guide: https://help.gnome.org/users/gnome-help/stable/a11y.html
> > Log bugs and feature requests at http://bugzilla.gnome.org