How To: Windows XP Mode In...Ubuntu Linux?

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When Linux becomes as well-performing and well-adopted by game developers I'll be more than happy to switch my main-pc to Windows.
Sure there's Wine, but it's got serious performance issues.
If game devs were to magically just drop DirectX and glom onto OpenGL permanently then Linux as a legit gaming platform will be a reality and no one will be happier than me.
Until then it doesn't really matter to me what Linux does.
If you're a Linux user, Linux has a comparable and fairly easy to use app for everything that Windows XP and Vista does, I'd go through those before I start worrying about VirtualBox.

For me, my best use of VirtualBox is:
1. Linux inside Windows, to learn Linux on one machine (if you don't have a second one) without doing anything harmful to my OS.
2. For Windows inside of Windows to run all the bloatware and virus garbage (iTunes, AVG, whatever). I have all my programs that need to stay resident in the VM, do my web-browsing in the VM, and keep my host OS clean as a whistle and streamlined for gaming so I don't have to turn off 10-20 processes first. It's also fun to use a VM to examine Virii and suspicious files in a safe environment. I can run the host OS with virtually nothing if it's never exposed, my VM takes the beating.

 
[citation][nom]adamovera[/nom]1)You can use a retail upgrade copy of XP, there is just the extra step of inserting your pre-XP disc during the XP installation.2) ...and Mac, Solaris, too![/citation]

Adam, last I checked MacOS, sadly, cannot be installed in VirtualBox as a guest (maybe if you're running a mac, not sure about that) because the non-greedy, friendly, guys who are somehow not evil like the Micro$oft overlords' license agreement specifically states that you are only allowed to install MacOS on Mac hardware.
Those lame, neo-con cretins at MS though will charge you $ (can you believe it, money, for a product!) and let you install it on any-old piece of $200 hardware and even let you blame them when your $200 piece of hardware doesn't work. Cruel scum that they are.

(btw, this isn't a criticism of you, Adam... nice article btw :) just a sarcastic rant of the seemingly arbitrary nature of what is "worth money" and "corporate greed" and what isn't.

An important Vbox vs XPm distinction as emjayy pointed out and I can vouch for is the fact that you don't need hardware VT support. It runs great on my old dual-core Athlon 4200+ with one other VM (XP or Linux). More than one gets dicey because I only have 2GB of ram.
 
[citation][nom]Forboding Angel[/nom]Lolwut? 300 bucks? I think not... try again...http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us [...] ts/compareNext time read up before posting fallacies.[/citation]
ROFL! OK buddy, here is where the $300 price tag appears in my article:
"If you want a full retail boxed copy of Windows 7 with XPM, you're going to have to fork over $300 for Professional, or $320 for Ultimate."
You posted prices to upgrade. Next time, don't say anything. You are the one posting fallacies about Win7. You also just helped prove my point that Win7's licensing scheme is absurdly confusing. Cheers:)
 
Miribus: I meant that Mac and Solaris, along with Linux (and yes, Windows, too), can be hosts, with XP as the guest OS. But what you're saying is also correct. The MacOS license agreement prohibits VM installations along with installations on non-Apple branded systems 🙁
 
I tried Ubuntu for awhile. I am sorry but Virtual Box, Vmware and/or Wine are no substitute for just being able to open a program at will and have it running in 10 seconds. Not to mention interacting with your file system. There still isn't a Linux Equivalent to AnyDVD so there is still no way to backup your movies to hard drive in native DVD and BluRay file format.
 
For my needs, there is still one shortcoming on virtualization, whether it's VirtualBox or Virtual PC 2007. Neither one supports Firwire. I realize it isn't used by everyone, but there are some of us who use it for video work. High end Sony cameras use iLink (Firewire) over USB. I realize that home video camcorders are using USB these days (USB 2.0 saved the day) but the pro level still works on Firewire.

I have no idea why it hasn't gotten support - if it's too difficult or developers just feel it isn't worth it. I do hope it will appear eventually. Maybe a reader here has heard something about this? If so, I'd love to hear about it (I do drop back to read my own postings - I know, egocentric, but what can I say ;^)? )

The save for me with XPM is the close integration with 7 - I can capture the video files to my hard drive and access them smoothly from XPM. I did try this with VirtualBox, but it needed more time than I had to give to get the whole thing working smoothly. Of course, I haven't yet caused a crash in XPM, but I'm trying to not overload it this time, like I did with VirtualBox on Vista.
 
Great article. Although a mainstream linux user for ages, I've been holding off virtualisation on my desktop and using a dual boot PC, booting to windows to use the occassional program that requires windows. This article has convinced me to give Virtualbox a try, and if it works well, I'll end up scratching off my dual boot and sticking with just linux and a virtualised windows container.

I enjoy your coverage of linux on toms hardware and hope you'll continue with these great articles. Thank you!
 
If you are going to go with linux go with linux.
XP Mode is for customers for which the majority of their legacy apps run fine in Windows 7 but some critical apps don't. It's not for customers who can't run anything in Windows 7, at least I can't see the benefit. Much the same way why run linux if you are going to run all your apps in Windows anyway? If you are going to throw away all your current apps and replace them with similar apps or develop new apps, linux would be a fine way to go and virtualbox would server you will until you finish the whole process, but this is not what XP Mode is about.
 
[citation][nom]WheelsOfConfusion[/nom]A lot of people seem to be missing the point. This isn't an argument, "use Ubuntu instead of Windows Vista/7!" The article is about how you can get "XP mode" if you already aren't using a newer Windows OS.[/citation]

Agrred. I think the author implied this on the first page. If you don't like Linux or Virtualization than obviously this artivle wasn't targetting you.

I enjoyed the article and the step by step guide. I look forward to more linux articles.
 
can't you rather do an article on proper virtualization like xen?



 
you can change the location of 'my documents' to your linux share, to make transfering files much easier... change location under properties of my documents.
 
[citation][nom]xen-please[/nom]can't you rather do an article on proper virtualization like xen?[/citation]
[citation][nom]smlong[/nom]VirtualBox stinks. If you enable SMP, it crashes quite readily.You could have at least used a stable VM platform like Xen or VMWare Player for the article.[/citation]

Xen doesn't have a .deb and isn't in the repos. Maybe later on, after I do a piece or two on the command line. Right now I'm focusing on GUI-only methods. But don't worry, I'll get there eventually.

VMWare Player is nice, and free. But you have to create the VM in a paid version of VMWare, which somewhat defeats the purpose of saving money. I also try to avoid writing How-To's or Tips&Tricks articles that utilize paid software. It shrinks the audience, especially when I'm already looking only at Linux software. With free stuff anybody can follow along.
It could also be seen as an advertisement. For paid stuff I like to stick to the review, roundup, or shootout formats.
As far as VBox crashing, it's never happened to me, but I don't have any machines with more than one proc either. Besides, the article is about getting that last XP app running in Linux, not about all the virtualization options that are available.
 
Autocad 2010 won't even install on windows7x64... I'm waiting for some update from autodesk, now i'm running xp and acad is very slow on xp, on vista it runs good though. I'm sure it would be hell slow running vbox on linux and autocad from there...
 
Wow, a Linux setup that doesn't require me to enter a paragraph of random characters into the command line! Imagine that! Keep this up and people might actually take Linux seriously.
 
Microsoft Virtual PC is free, as is the Windows version of Virtual Box. What costs money is the XP license, which is not included in Ubuntu or VirtualBox for Linux either.

Wine is free, but that's not "XP Mode".
 
Can I install a backup software like Acronis on my aging XP laptop and restore it into the VirtualBox?
How about PC Mover software I got a licence for a while back when they offered them free?
I would like to have my beloved system transplanted to a new machine with all of its settings and programs intact.
 
[citation][nom]adamovera[/nom]XVMWare Player is nice, and free. But you have to create the VM in a paid version of VMWare, which somewhat defeats the purpose of saving money.[/citation]
VMware Server is free and it creates VMs. However, the web GUI isn't the most stable I've come across, and it's not very snappy.
 
Hopefully consumers will do their research, but I highly doubt it. I've built a few machine for people and if I continue to, I'm going to send them to MS's W7 comparison chart just to ensure they'll be content with that version and not enter into a money finger trap.
 
As far as I know- VPC and the like cannot access/emu the GPU... meaning you can't game (good games, that is) inside the VM/VPC. If you want to run Office or MineSweeper-- than rock on with it. LOL

Like multi-boot is soooo baaaadd. Sheesh.
 
I don't see the point of this article. If all you want is XP, you can run your (presumed valid) copy of XP until the cows come home. And yes, I can still buy XP. It's what we're putting on our customer's computers until Win 7 is officially released, and what customers prefer as a rule. If you want to run XP and Linux, dual booting works much better and both OS's will run at 100% of your hardware's capability, rather than cut in half as with a VM. I've never found anything about a VM to be convenient. They're a pain to setup, a pain to keep working, and a pain to troubleshoot when they mysteriously quit working (as they always do). This article doesn't mention it, but half of the programs for XP won't run correctly in a VM anyway. Anything memory intensive or video intensive will be crap on a VM. If you want Win 7 and XP, you're still better off with a dual boot rather than waste resources on a VM. I can't name a single person I know who cares to learn Linux, let alone a paying customer, especially just to have what they already had before all that mess. As a system builder, our basic systems will include Win 7 Pro, and Ultimate or lesser versions only if specifically ordered, and cost the same as they would with XP Home (Win 7 Pro) or XP Pro (Win 7 Ultimate). I'd count the number of customers who ordered Linux in our 15 years of business, but I don't think counting to 0 is considered counting.

So what exactly is the purpose of this article, besides showing the author's preference for Linux and VMs? It sure doesn't represent the opinions of the masses, or even a strong minority. 🙂
 
I don't see the point of this article. If all you want is XP, you can run your (presumed valid) copy of XP until the cows come home. And yes, I can still buy XP. It's what we're putting on our customer's computers until Win 7 is officially released, and what customers prefer as a rule. If you want to run XP and Linux, dual booting works much better and both OS's will run at 100% of your hardware's capability, rather than cut in half as with a VM. I've never found anything about a VM to be convenient. They're a pain to set up, a pain to keep working, and a pain to troubleshoot when they mysteriously quit working (as they always do). This article doesn't mention it, but half of the programs for XP won't run correctly in a VM anyway. Anything memory intensive or video intensive will crap out on a VM. If you want Win 7 and XP, you're still better off with a dual boot rather than waste resources on a VM. I can't name a single person I know who cares to learn Linux, let alone a paying customer, especially just to have what they already had before all that mess. As a system builder, our basic systems will include Win 7 Pro, and Ultimate or lesser versions only if specifically ordered. The cost will be the same as they are now with XP Home (Win 7 Pro) or XP Pro (Win 7 Ultimate). Let me count the number of customers who ordered Linux in our 17 years of business... 0, nada, zilch.

So what exactly is the purpose of this article, besides showing the author's preference for Linux and VMs? It sure doesn't represent the opinions of the masses, or even a strong minority. 🙂
 
You could use Xen for graphically intense programs, I believe it has support for ATI (not so sure about Nvidia). In any case, this whole xpm thing reminds me of what Apple was smart enough to do 10 years ago with the whole MacOS 9 to MacOS X(BSD) emulation...this is looonnngg over due, and at this point there are far too many sufficiently robust linux distros out there for my patience with microsoft to have run its coarse...I'll stick with debian and wine thank you!
 
I just got finished playing with a similar setup, Win XP on Ubuntu 9.04 64 bit. I think it's a wash, and I won't be using it, since it won't let me play my TV tuner card. XP won't see the other hard drives I have, even thought they're in NTFS and Ubuntu sees them without a problem. It would be going backwards to have my drives on USB, just to enable them for this setup. For some reason, Virtual XP would only see one of my 4 cores... the slider for up to 32 cores didn't move in settings.

The bright side... if I were to go with a simpler setup, is that I can load my printer/scanner on XP and be able to have access to scanned pics quickly in Ubuntu. Also, my MagicJack USB phone works fine in Virtual XP. It didn't work with Ubuntu, so it gives me the option of having linux for my main OS.

While I enjoyed the challenge of setting it all up, I'm going to have to pass when it comes to using this setup in my everyday computer. I really couldn't see the benefit.

Thanks for doing the article.
 
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