If you're running virtual machines, you don't need Crossover - just run the application from whatever OS is the best for it.
Basically, the virtual machine is a machine using standard drivers (it comes with the basics already). To connect to other stuff, there are several ways - like for printing, you can print to a "network printer" on the host machine, and for CD, use the host machine's CD directly. There are some limitations with virtual machines, primary being that you can forget about 3D acceleration (for games) in a virtual machine, and also direct hardware access can't happen, for things that have reliance on very specific hardware.
It's ideal for playing around with a new operating system in an environment where you don't have to reinstall your primary machine.
At work, I run a few VMs: I have my host machine for websurfing, Office, and email; it runs Windows 7 My Windows XP VM is for testing network settings etc., since most PCs in the office are XP. My Windows 2003 Server VM is loaded with all the configuration tools I need to manage servers, email servers, and other network stuff.
At home, I have a copy of that same Windows 2003 Server VM to connect to work with, so that work's VPN software, antivirus, etc. don't have any effect on my own home machine.
For running virtual machines, you do need a decent amount of memory (you can assign however much RAM to each VM you want, but less means it's slower), and a dual-core CPU will help a lot.
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Date: Wednesday, 20 May 2009 17:49 (UTC)Basically, the virtual machine is a machine using standard drivers (it comes with the basics already). To connect to other stuff, there are several ways - like for printing, you can print to a "network printer" on the host machine, and for CD, use the host machine's CD directly. There are some limitations with virtual machines, primary being that you can forget about 3D acceleration (for games) in a virtual machine, and also direct hardware access can't happen, for things that have reliance on very specific hardware.
It's ideal for playing around with a new operating system in an environment where you don't have to reinstall your primary machine.
At work, I run a few VMs: I have my host machine for websurfing, Office, and email; it runs Windows 7 My Windows XP VM is for testing network settings etc., since most PCs in the office are XP. My Windows 2003 Server VM is loaded with all the configuration tools I need to manage servers, email servers, and other network stuff.
At home, I have a copy of that same Windows 2003 Server VM to connect to work with, so that work's VPN software, antivirus, etc. don't have any effect on my own home machine.
For running virtual machines, you do need a decent amount of memory (you can assign however much RAM to each VM you want, but less means it's slower), and a dual-core CPU will help a lot.