virtual box installation and use

[westea49]

This may be a question for oracle/virtualbox but I decided to submit it here.

I gave up on Windows 8 August 2013 and have been a linux mint user since. While I have been able to find equivalent software for most of my needs there are two "windows applications" that I would like to use that I have not found Linux versions (TurboTax and QuickenWill maker plus). I was considering virtualbox but I may have hit a problem; no Windows 8 system image on CD (I have a USB backup but). I have two Windows 7 computers (desktop and laptop) and I am considering making a system image of them but I gather I might have hardware compatibility issues. I do not want to wipeout my Linix Mint (17) and reinstall Windows 8 just for a system image.

My "Linux" computer was a cheap Gateway (SX2110G) that I bought to evaluate Windows 8. I evaluated it (~10 months), hated it and decided it was time to jump off the Microsoft ship. LinuxMint is great but occasionally some software is not available. I am willing to pay for commercial Linux software (I am using Varicad for Linux and FreeCad, wish the two could be merged).

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Note: I understand that Turbotax can be run online for simple returns and I do have older Window 7 machines BUT I would like to stay with Linux for all of my "real work" if at all possible. Wine and crossover does not seem to work on the applications listed above.

[lewtwo]

This may be a question for oracle/virtualbox but I decided to submit it here.

I gave up on Windows 8 August 2013 and have been a linux mint user since. While I have been able to find equivalent software for most of my needs there are two "windows applications" that I would like to use that I have not found Linux versions (TurboTax and QuickenWill maker plus). I was considering virtualbox but I may have hit a problem; no Windows 8 system image on CD (I have a USB backup but). I have two Windows 7 computers (desktop and laptop) and I am considering making a system image of them but I gather I might have hardware compatibility issues. I do not want to wipeout my Linix Mint (17) and reinstall Windows 8 just for a system image.

My "Linux" computer was a cheap Gateway (SX2110G) that I bought to evaluate Windows 8. I evaluated it (~10 months), hated it and decided it was time to jump off the Microsoft ship. LinuxMint is great but occasionally some software is not available. I am willing to pay for commercial Linux software (I am using Varicad for Linux and FreeCad, wish the two could be merged).

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Note: I understand that Turbotax can be run online for simple returns and I do have older Window 7 machines BUT I would like to stay with Linux for all of my "real work" if at all possible. Wine and crossover does not seem to work on the applications listed above.

OEM versions of Windows usually include a utility to "create" OS installation disks --- but those tend to only work with the OEM's native hardware. The alternative is the "migrate" one of the live Windows Installs to a VM. That process will require you re-authenticate the Windows OS install. If it is a resale version of Windows then that should not be a problem ... you might have to call microsoft and tell them that you are reinstalling the OS on a new hard disk (they will require your original Windows code number). If it is an OEM version then there a other problems as some of the OEM versions (Dell, HP, etc.) examine the BIOS signatures to verify it is truly "their" hardware.

If you have a live Windows 7 machine that you are going to convert to Linux then you can first do a backup to a USB disk drive and create a "restore" CD. These can be used to restore the Windows Backup to a virtual machine .... you will however have the same "re-authenticate" hoops to jump through.

FYI:
One of the Windows application I have is Corel CAD. I found its performance under VMware player to be better than VBox.
Speaking of CAD: Draftsight has a "Free Version" for Linux (X64).
Personally I prefer BricsCAD but it is NOT free (and at this point I am too cheap to buy it).

Now for the shameless self-promotion:
Check out my free (as in PUBLIC DOMAIN) Cad Library. http://www.keywild.com/cad_library/KeyW ... _index.htm

[Glend]

There are a lot of web sites that show how to use Windows 7 backup to re-install images on different computers (which is same as installing into a Virtual Box) but I couldn't get the dammed buggy restore function to work so in the end I just created a new installation of Windows 7 in Virtual Box and re-installed my apps and data. When I was happy with the installation I used slmgr to move the windows license from an unused windows 7 machine to the new Virtual Box installation. Windows 7 under Virtual Box works great (I turned off aero to reduce memory/cpu needs) under a I7 3770 with 8Gb of RAM.

[oldgranola]

If you have a cpu and MB that supports virtualization (enable it from bios) I think you'll have better performance using a kernel based virtualization tool (KVM) which with 'virt-manager' gui was a little simpler for me to set up than ZEN. I am running windows 7 as a VM inside LM17.1. Starts a little slow but runs fine. Photoshop, mapsource, TOPO and other widnows only progs work well. Games probably wouldn't be so hot. Machine is a cheep amd A8-6600k APU with 4G RAM. I gave the VM 3 cpu's and 2GB so not much overhead left to run other Linux stuff outside of the VM simultaneously. I've installed windows both from a standard DVD and from an ISO on a USB. I install directly from within the Virt-manager gui which is slow to get it done, went out and had lunch, but was pretty easy. BTW, I noticed a slight improvement upgrading LM17 to LM17.1 cin and going to the latest 3.16 kernel.

Here's a good starting point if interested.
http://www.howtogeek.com/117635/how-to- ... on-ubuntu/