Windows on Linux via VMWare

[Carl B]

Thinking of running Windows on top of Linux via VMWare - primarily for the purpose of gaming - and wondering if there are any aspects or shortcomings I'm missing here. Any thoughts? The system has 2 GB of RAM and an A64X2 so I'm not overly worried on the overhead front.

 

[Florin]

The main shortcoming would be that 3d acceleration in VMWare is still very limited in functionality, as in no OpenGL at all and hardly any Direct3D apps other than simple demos actually working.

 

[Carl B]

Well that is certainly a drawback, for sure. Thanks for the heads up - I guess it'll be a Windows machine afterall then.

 

[zsouthboy]

Vice-versa is an ideal solution, however.

Performance isn't bad at all, either.

(You also get to avoid hunting down drivers and such for your linux distro, as a plus, for running it in a VM)

 

[Rodéric]

Did you give WINE a try ?

VMWare and other computer emulators aren't likely to take your hardware into account, they'll emulate some "basic" PC, while WINE should fake windows and such get most of your PC specs into account. (Not sure about DirectX)

 

[Carl B]

I'll give WINE a try and do some research.

@zsouthboy: Yeah I know it would work great in the reverse, but it would kind of defeat the purpose of seeking a stable Linux underpinning. It's for my brothers computer actually and he's just always backing himself into some sort of driver issue, OS corruption, or what have you. I thought this would help to reduce the stress on my part when I have to go and re-install Windows for him again because something else freaked out. Though to be fair, a lot of the problems stem from piecemeal component upgrades and the associated inability the NForce 4 drivers seem to have at handling them. And removing the NForce 4 drivers and being left with a stable system is easier said than done.

 

[Florin]

Did you give WINE a try ?

VMWare and other computer emulators aren't likely to take your hardware into account, they'll emulate some "basic" PC, while WINE should fake windows and such get most of your PC specs into account. (Not sure about DirectX)

That is indeed what VMWare used to do, but the latest versions do have experimental 3d acceleration support. It's just not quite usable enough yet.

WINE is indeed the better solution right now, particularly Transgaming's Cedega product which builds on WINE.

The least problematic way to do this would still be dual booting the two OSs, of course.