I still use VMware Workstation 7 on W7 (Snapshots are so handy).
Newer operating systems don't like it, so I have the latest VMware Player installed in LM17.2
My VMs seem to run a bit smoother in LM than in W7.
Aside
I just performed an in-place upgrade from LM17.1 to LM17.2.
It took <30 minutes to finish (including downloading the necessary components).
All of my settings and customisations seem to have survived intact and I haven't noticed any other issues.
That's good, didn't Linux Mint use to require a clean install whenever you wanted to upgrade?
From all I've been reading lately and with the latest release build I think the free upgrade is a excellent deal.
You are correct.
The recommended procedure used to be that you should perform a clean install.
That said, I've previously successfully performed an in-place upgrade to LM16 from LM15.
The Linux Mint site recommends that you don't upgrade just for the sake of it.
They suggest that you should only upgrade if you have a good reason (e.g. some sort of issue).
Couldn't agree more! But I still plan on physical installs at times as well as what may be run on a VM simply since it will more apps and other things to run as well as be connected. As for pc games in general I keep an oldie running on the 64bit Ultimate as well as having seen it run on the 8 CP while I had that on a few years back. Hopefully it won't see any problem with 10! Other titles of course run by way of the Steam engine.
Old builds with 1gb or 2gb of ram like a pair of 512s certainly wouldn't suffice for running more then one or two VMs back in the XP days and didn't do much better on Vista either while a few VM players like VBox and VM Player were standing out. A third player came later while also looking at the Team Player for remote access between builds. If I am running a game or video capture for instance while away from the main case I could easily view the activity on the small Vulcan case with a micro atx and 4gb in that while set up to be not able to control anything on the main. Vice versa however for controlling what goes on with the portable tower which I hope is also workable with 10.
With the 10041 build tried out on both VM Player two versions note as well as VBox 10 simply would not connect to the web on either ruling out the need to be concerned about any malwares, etc. Other VMs even distros however usually haven't taken much to see them connect while I tend not to even browse for anything but mainly software type updates while hardware issues lack. The important stuff is still found to be limited to a physical Windows install and be highly doubtful of running properly on Wine or some other go between medium between OSs.
Totally off topic question but I'm just curious, and it did get touched on a few posts back...
XP is now unsupported (and Vista is rapidly heading that way).
Question... are all the updates still available for XP via Windows Update if you were to clean install it. If so then how long would that continue to be so for an (or any) unsupported OS ?
Depends on what type of mood Microsoft is in I guess. Windows 98 updates were online long after it reached end of life. They may keep them there as a courtesy as long as a lot of systems are still in use. I haven't worked on an XP system in a long while but I assume updates are still online.
Thanks. I only ran XP at home for a few weeks and so have next to zero experience of it. I suppose resource wise, sourcing the updates doesn't really cost MS anything in the scheme of things. I guess its as you say, it becomes a courtesy.
A thought just popped into my head... isn't there a paid for support and updates service still available for organisations that still use XP. Perhaps when they call time on that, the updates will be removed. Which could be a while if the support generates significant revenue for MS.
Interesting !
Since many a business have been keeping XP networks alive while MS has waited patiently for them to move up into 7 if not now 8 or newer their support would maintain things a bit while the automatic process may not be still working. Once you have a fresh copy of XP on you will find out fast if you need to contact MS for anything.
Third party sources like hardware , more likely software manufacturers may also need to be contacted directly with XP going offline a year ago with them still carrying updates and patches for older versions of their wares. Hardware companies carrying XP support while certain models are still being made would still be seeing XP drivers for a bit while newer gear most likely won't see any.
With the last of the brand new 7 machines being sold a year ago you can't expect to find much still available at this late date for XP!
Quote