[PLUG] VirtualBox on Slackware

[Tomas K]

This is turning into general discussion - still I see the original
point of this email tread in a need to reuse existing VirtualBox
virtual machine image/installation.

So it makes little sense to try do anything but VirtualBox.

Often, the decision to use vBox was made decade or even longer ago.
There was very little of KVM back then, so the choices were Xen, vBox
or VMware. I would argue that Xen versus vBox 10-15 years ago was
really matter of taste, remember vBox was being actively opened by Sun
Microsystem.

I do not think that it is good idea doing fresh long term virtual
machine build in VMware or vBox today - Given the almost infinite
desire/need for longevity of these installations; and our experience
with fully commercial software over the course of multiple
acquisitions. If VMware or vBox changes their mind about their license
or support - one would find it extremely difficult, if not impossible,
to install that VM on your next hardware 3-5 years from now.

Tomas

On Sun, 2018-12-02 at 13:43 -0800, King Beowulf wrote:
> On 12/2/18 6:13 AM, Chuck Hast wrote:
> > I see all of this and wonder if you have given thought to VMWare
> > Player,
> > for personal use it is
> > free, I use it all of the time when I cannot get something to run
> > under
> > Wine, it sees the USB
> > stuff quite well.
> > 
> > I have not had issues with it seeing devices. I use it to program
> > radios, I
> > am running Win 10
> > on a Ubuntu Mate 18.04 host. The radios look like serial USB
> > devices to the
> > OS. Most of them
> > work just fine under wine, but one which seems the program is all
> > buggered
> > up and even a
> > trick to run on Windows. Oh, I also use it for some Garmin stuff
> > that will
> > not work on Wine.
> > Garmin should be ashamed, they sure use Linux behind the GPS
> > screens on
> > their products
> > but cannot come up with a decent piece of software for Linux to
> > talk to
> > their products.
> > 
> > Here is a bit from them about running workstation (player is WS
> > without the
> > license)  under
> > Slack:
> > https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/113
> > 
> > 
> 
> Chuck,
> 
> It all depends on one's linux zealotry and personal preferences.
> 
> qemu - fully open source
> Virtualbox - partially open source (uses qemu code in places)
> VMWare - fully proprietary.
> 
> qemu uses KVM modules already present in the Linux kernel.  VB and
> VMware have their own mystery binaries.
> 
> The link you posted has some factual errors.  Slackware uses a BSD
> style
> init system, which is NOT "unusual" and is also fully compatible with
> System V init scripts.  See also http://www.slackware.com/config/init
> .php
> 
> Secondly, the statement
> 
> "Keep in mind that Slackware is not an explicitly supported
> distribution, mostly because of its unusual file layout."
> 
> bespeaks of a great deal of ignorance regarding Linux file systems
> and
> layouts.  I personally prefer qemu (fewer extra dependencies but
> harder
> CLI configuration), with Virtualbox as a second choice (nice gui).
> 
> -Ed
> 
> 
> 
> 
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