Options for work machine...

spotdog14

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jun 16, 2005
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Ok, so here is my deal. I run Ubuntu 9.04 64bit on my new laptop and have been loving it! I have to run Windows at work, because of some of the applications I use (Microsoft Dynamics CRM). But I think I have come up with a solution, I have been toying around with running Windows in a VM (Sun's VirtualBox) and using the seamless mode and then install all of my Windows applications in the VM.

Does anyone do this, have they run into any problems? My work machine will handle the load, its a C2D 3.0ghz 4 gigs of Ram 160gig HDD. And what I would do is dual boot, so I would keep my original partition in case something breaks in the VM.

So has anyone done this, or anything like this?
 
The biggest concerns I'd have, given that it's a work machine, are :

1) Are the IT guys going to flip? If you're in an environment w/ strict IT rules, this might not go over well.
2) Are the legal guys going to flip? IIRC, the license for the fancier VBox is a non-commercial/evaluation license. I don't remember if seamless mode is in the OSS or comercial ones. Also make sure that you're kosher on all your Windows licenses.
 
The biggest concerns I'd have, given that it's a work machine, are :

1) Are the IT guys going to flip? If you're in an environment w/ strict IT rules, this might not go over well.
2) Are the legal guys going to flip? IIRC, the license for the fancier VBox is a non-commercial/evaluation license. I don't remember if seamless mode is in the OSS or comercial ones. Also make sure that you're kosher on all your Windows licenses.

I am the IT Admin here, as for the license seamless mode is included in the opensource version.

As for the Windows license, if I recall correctly, XP's EULA prohibits it from being run in a VM, actually don't all of them do that?
 
I have made the move from XP (which is the standard here) to Linux Mint. There are apps that need windows, such as Mercury Quality Center, that I need to use on a daily basis.

I completely blew away the windows partition and made the Linux one 100%. Inside Linux, I use Vbox. Doing linux 100% forced me to find work-arounds to making things work.

The only issue I have had is if I need to connect from home. We use Cisco VPN here. Right now, I have the VPN client with a soft token in the XP VM, and use that if I need to connect. However, a quick google brings up how to use Cisco VPN in linux. I just don't know if the soft token will work.

Otherwise, I use Firefox for all browsing, Evolution for email (mail server is Exchange 2k3), Pidgin for Sametime connect, and terminal still gets me to all Unix servers in all our domains after updating the resolv.conf file.

A big feather in me keeping Linux was when they updated Network Manager to 0.7 that included support for Key Indexes, which our Wep here uses. Before that I has to use hacked config files to allow me to connect, and even still, I needed to reboot most of the time in order to get it up.
 
The other option you have is attempting to get the applications to run using WINE. It is out of beta status, and has a production-stable version. Its worth a Shot. I have also switched to completely Linux (Actually, I use all Ubuntu Linux @ 9.04, except my server, which will be updated from 8.04 to 9.04 as soon as 9.04 is stable.) But using VB OSE is definitely a good option, if WINE doesnt work.
 
The other option you have is attempting to get the applications to run using WINE. It is out of beta status, and has a production-stable version. Its worth a Shot. I have also switched to completely Linux (Actually, I use all Ubuntu Linux @ 9.04, except my server, which will be updated from 8.04 to 9.04 as soon as 9.04 is stable.) But using VB OSE is definitely a good option, if WINE doesnt work.

I would much prefer Wine, but Outlook 2k7 does not run, and I am sure the M$ CRM Appliance would not run either.

I think I am going either do a live cd or USB live session tomorrow to make sure 9.04 works with everything on the system and possibly depending on how stable the live session is try to do a virtualbox setup.
 
Yeah, the CRM is almost certainly a no-go, but is there a specific reason you have to use Outlook 07? Evolution should be able to completely replace that for you. And VirtualBox OSE should run under Live, it might be a little sluggish though, compared to a fully installed version.
 
Yeah, the CRM is almost certainly a no-go, but is there a specific reason you have to use Outlook 07? Evolution should be able to completely replace that for you. And VirtualBox OSE should run under Live, it might be a little sluggish though, compared to a fully installed version.

I do prefer Evolution, but I need Outlook 07 to work with the CRM Appliance.
 
Ahh, ok. I have no experience with Dynamics CRM, didn't realize it uses Outlook 2007 in a way that cant be duplicated in Evolution
 
Ahh, ok. I have no experience with Dynamics CRM, didn't realize it uses Outlook 2007 in a way that cant be duplicated in Evolution

I really don't mind using Outlook, its just this little appliance makes it very flaky. When I asked the CRM tech about why it does these things (when you first load Outlook it just sits "loading" your email, and will continue this for up to 5 restarts of outlook before you are able to use/view/anything to your email) and she said they are "working" on that. I am dreading when we go live with this... (a week away) because I am going to get so many calls about users not being able to use their email.
 
I do this. I am a Network Engineer for a Service Provider.

Running Debian with vmware\Windows for some applications.

Works like a dream!

No more pointless Windows error messages which make you stupid just by reading them.

I did keep my Windows partition until a couple of weeks ago...then blasted it as IT would have to re-image your PC anyways.

Our IT Dept. are OK with it, they just said that I have to support it myself. They are a pretty good bunch of guys.

Ok, so here is my deal. I run Ubuntu 9.04 64bit on my new laptop and have been loving it! I have to run Windows at work, because of some of the applications I use (Microsoft Dynamics CRM). But I think I have come up with a solution, I have been toying around with running Windows in a VM (Sun's VirtualBox) and using the seamless mode and then install all of my Windows applications in the VM.

Does anyone do this, have they run into any problems? My work machine will handle the load, its a C2D 3.0ghz 4 gigs of Ram 160gig HDD. And what I would do is dual boot, so I would keep my original partition in case something breaks in the VM.

So has anyone done this, or anything like this?
 
I do this. I am a Network Engineer for a Service Provider.

Running Debian with vmware\Windows for some applications.

Works like a dream!

No more pointless Windows error messages which make you stupid just by reading them.

I did keep my Windows partition until a couple of weeks ago...then blasted it as IT would have to re-image your PC anyways.

Our IT Dept. are OK with it, they just said that I have to support it myself. They are a pretty good bunch of guys.

Thanks everyone for your advice. I just did it today, I was a little concerned about how my Dell branded XP disk would activate, but everything went well! Amazingly enough it asked for the CD key off of the computer, poped that in and it activated without a problem!

Right now I am installing SP3 on the VM, got Ubuntu all updated, now I am installing my favorite Firefox addons while XP is updating. Its crazy how fast this thing runs with Ubuntu 9.04 on it.

So far the only problem I have run into is my linksys bluetooth adapter is really flaky in Ubuntu, so I am using a wired mouse right now.
 
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