The Book of Screed - February 1st, 2008

What you see here is Windows XP running as a virtual machine on Ubuntu Linux 7.10.

My considered opinion on the matter:

Cooooooool.

The increasing proliferation of server virtualization is not necessarily the panacea its advocates make it out to be. After all, if you consolidate six virtual servers down to one server running VMWare Workstation, then those six servers all have a single point of failure; the host machine. If that goes down, you can lose all six servers. So running, say, your domain controllers as virtual machines is a remarkably bad idea. Nevertheless, I have found VMWare to be extremely useful for testing purposes, and for consolidating down all the minor little servers that any organization collects.

And even better, you can run VMWare Server on a Linux box, thereby saving the need to buy a Windows Server 2000 or 2003 license. It's a bit tricky to install on Ubuntu 7.10, but I found an excellent set of directions here at the Ubuntugeek.com blog, which has many excellent Ubuntu usage tips. Check it out, if you are so inclined.

-JM

A true master fought with only one sword. Extra blades were little more than crutches.

It only takes one blade to kill.

I am pleased to report that my flash story "In the Moment" is currently available for order in Issue 19 of Flash Me Magazine.

-JM