<div dir="ltr"><div><div>Also, could be useful if you need to use something in a OS that you don´t have. Vgr: Once I needed to open a document in a program that didn´t work in Xp or later OS, so I installed W98 in the Virtual Machine, installed the program and recovered the info.<br><br></div>Also useful to learn to use Linux if you are a Windows user and you don´t want to mess with your drives.<br><br></div>Still, I am trying to install in my Pc (that uses Windows 10) a Virtual Machine able to emulate MacOS 7, 8, etc and I couldn´t find a way.<br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Feb 29, 2016 at 3:24 AM, Tomasz Rola <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:rtomek@ceti.pl" target="_blank">rtomek@ceti.pl</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><span class="">On Sun, Feb 28, 2016 at 05:34:42PM -0600, William Flynn Wallace wrote:<br>
> First, this seems inferior:<br>
><br>
> <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2410292,00.asp" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2410292,00.asp</a><br>
<br>
</span>Yes, they talk about Parallels (never used it) and VMware (I have used<br>
it a lot, but it was still back in 20th century, had no contact with<br>
software since that time). I guess for the purpose of trying<br>
alternatives, you can go with whatever you can find out there. I am<br>
not sure about VMware, I can see they have download section but<br>
evolved into few product families and I would need more time to<br>
understand which you should use - most probably something with<br>
"workstation" in its name.<br>
<br>
Given that we do not know what you will decide, maybe VirtualBox would<br>
be just good enough to run it for a day or a week.<br>
<span class=""><br>
> Second, while I have visited Wikipedia and explored several definitions of<br>
> things, I still cannot figure out the damned thing is for.<br>
<br>
</span>You are doing all right. It is remarkable that you look for<br>
information, good job. As of what the thing is for, it is a way to<br>
have more than one computer when you only have one, quickly and with<br>
as low effort as possible.<br>
<br>
In my case, I use it mostly for some quick experimentation. I do not<br>
like rebooting and I do not like to mess with my partitions on<br>
disk. Yet, when I want to try some operating system, I would be<br>
supposed to install it on my computer, right? But, this would require<br>
that I interrupt what I do, and then some of this stuff is a bit<br>
experimental and can do something nasty to the computer and I will<br>
have to clean up, and what I want is just to have a look at it, see if<br>
it is worth more of my time or not. So, I can spare thirty minutes of<br>
my time, create such a virtual computer and run this operating system<br>
in it. While the OS installs, I can read emails or even watch a movie<br>
or write a program. To do such thing without VM software, I would<br>
require another computer. But I do not have place for it.<br>
<br>
Nowadays, computers are quite powerful. They could easily pretend to<br>
be more than one. I could have about twenty 1990-era-equivalent<br>
virtual PC computers without even noticing much. So I could setup<br>
small network of virtual computers all inside one bigger computer and<br>
see how certain things go in such network - for example, this kind of<br>
setup may be used in security testing. Say, I want to see how virus<br>
(a.k.a. worm) goes from one computer to another. With real (physical)<br>
computers, this is going to be tricky and a bit dangerous, because it<br>
is never 100% guaranteed you can clean up after such experiment. With<br>
VM, it is all much safer. There might be viruses which could break out<br>
of such VM and go out into the wild, but otherwise, once the<br>
experiments are over, all it takes to clean up is deleting such<br>
machines, and this should be it.<br>
<br>
You do not need to buy twenty computers, then physically run around<br>
the lab pressing their keyboards - you just make it all going on,<br>
sitting at your desk, comfortably turning them on when you need them,<br>
turning them off when you do not.<br>
<br>
Likewise, since I am not sure if I want to upgrade my current Debian<br>
or go with totally another OS, I can make a VM with copy of my current<br>
Debian, upgrade it and see if I like it or not. Or I can have a VM<br>
specifically for certain things, like doing tax reports, once a year,<br>
with tax program who only works with very specific ten years old<br>
operating system. But I do not want to use that system at all, I only<br>
need it once a year. I could thus decide to keep such virtual machine<br>
stored somewhere on a pendrive, and use it just once a year. Or I<br>
could have another real computer standing in my room, collecting dust,<br>
only to be used once a year and not touched otherwise, because if<br>
something goes wonky I will have to reinstall everything and loose<br>
time.<br>
<span class=""><br>
> It runs a virtual copy of an OS, right? Why?<br>
<br>
</span>No no... it runs a full virtual computer. Because you can do things<br>
with such computer that you would not want to do with real one,<br>
without fearing consequences. The OS thinks this is the real<br>
computer. Thus both you and the OS are very happy, in theory at least.<br>
<span class=""><br>
> If I downloaded Linux, why not run that straight rather than through<br>
> Virtual box? If I run Windows through it will that fix any<br>
> problems? See how lost I am?<br>
<br>
</span>If you have a hardware problem, like something overheating and giving<br>
you BSOD, the problem will stay and haunt you until solved. Otherwise,<br>
I only suggested to try virtual machine to see if you like Linux or<br>
not. If you do like it, you could keep using it that way, i.e. inside<br>
VM or go on and install it on physical computer. And if you do not,<br>
all you need to do is remove the virtual machine and you are done. I<br>
think this is very convenient way to try things, especially that<br>
nowadays one could do quite a lot that way.<br>
<br>
Besides, installing unknown OS on your home computer may not be the<br>
best idea, because it is easy to screw up and then you would have to<br>
reinstall Windows and everything you need to use it.<br>
<br>
So I think it is both easier and safer to do it in VM first, even if<br>
it seems very exotic and alien.<br>
<span class=""><br>
> Maybe it's hard for you to understand that from what I read about this<br>
> stuff, I am a total beginner and thus lost.<br>
<br>
</span>But I can see you are trying to find the way, so do not despair.<br>
<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
--<br>
Regards,<br>
Tomasz Rola<br>
<br>
--<br>
** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature. **<br>
** As the answer, master did "rm -rif" on the programmer's home **<br>
** directory. And then the C programmer became enlightened... **<br>
** **<br>
** Tomasz Rola mailto:<a href="mailto:tomasz_rola@bigfoot.com">tomasz_rola@bigfoot.com</a> **<br>
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