Two linux/Windows questions...

[timelapse]

Hello all, i will apreciate any help, thanks in advance.
1. I am thinking about using VMWARE on linux, to use Windows 98 or 2k "inside" linux. Has anybody tried this? MY biggest worry is if my viedo card with VIVO will work on windows when it is running "inside" linux since i havent found any video capture aplications for linux yet. I have a ATI Radeon VIVO vid card.

2. Does linux work realiably on all laptops? Where could i find information on linux in laptops?

Thanks again everyone.

 

[clockhar]

Originally posted by: timelapse
Hello all, i will apreciate any help, thanks in advance.
1. I am thinking about using VMWARE on linux, to use Windows 98 or 2k "inside" linux. Has anybody tried this? MY biggest worry is if my viedo card with VIVO will work on windows when it is running "inside" linux since i havent found any video capture aplications for linux yet. I have a ATI Radeon VIVO vid card.

VMware runs OK. If you actually buy it (i just got 30 day demo - BS), it'll run windows fine. Slow, but fine. I don't know about the VIVO functions of your ATI card, though. Best bet is to get the demo and try it out for yourself.
I'd use VMware if a) it didn't cry about my RAID drive and b) wasn't such a pain to set up ( oh yea, and if it was free, that wouldn't hurt either ).

2. Does linux work realiably on all laptops? Where could i find information on linux in laptops?

Linux has had problems w/ laptops. The video, sound, etc. features of laptops have mostly been problems. If your linux distro doesn't set up everything for you, I'd look around the 'net to see if you can find support (i.e. documentation, others using same laptop, etc.). If you can find support for your current laptop features, it should be fine.
More info f/ laptops? Hit google. Or look through Xfree86's doc pages, or even the linux distro's website. BTW, first figure out what exactly is on your laptop (so u know what to look for and setup).

 

[FUBAR]

Assuming that you can get linux on your laptop. you may also want to take a look at win4lin. It's another emulation program but does it a little differently. I haven't tried it but I have heard that it works pretty well.

EDIT: Riiight... url's are good: Win4Lin

 

[thornc]

Linux on Laptops!

 

[TonyRic]

I don't know about running vmware slow, I am running it on a PIII800 Thinkpad with 512MB RAM. VMware reserves system memory for Windows (or whichever OS you are running inside) so this is removed immediately and completely from Linux to use and WILL NOT be swapped. Therefore I recommend a minimum of 384MB system RAM when using VMware. As for Win4Lin, it supports Win 95/98/ME NOT Win NT/2K/XP.

As for the Vivo functions on your ATI card, I cannot speak to that, however VMware includes a video driver to run within VMware for Windows and Linux to take care of functionality. Remember VMware is not the best solution to run any Windows game if it is a FPS and you are looking for guaranteed performance anywhere near what you get natively. However, given the memory suggestion above, it will run all /most other apps just fine with no noticeable performance degradation.

If you are looking at it for Office apps, better to look at www.codeweavers.com and their crossover products. They work great for Browser plugins and Office apps.

Cheers.