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The Ubuntu community has contributed 12252 ideas, 57766 comments, 1176667 votes

Idea #10821: Move Windows to a VM when installing Ubuntu



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Written by grahamatubuntu the 7 Jul 08 at 08:00. Category: System.
Related to: Live CD installer. Status: New
Description
This is obviously not an easy one, but:

If the Windows XP user have some way of keeping there windows installation completely intact and running it alongside Ubuntu this would reduce the barrier of having to completely ditch Windows and move to Linux.

I know about dual booting, of course, but _I_ don't wan't to have to shut down all my applications and reboot just to see how that thing in Excel works so I can replicate it in OO on Linux (or summat).

If the user had the option of keeping their previous Windows XP installation running in Virtual Box or something, and possibly having all the Win XP hardware support (e.g. USB) to smooth the transition.

Now that would be something, wouldn't it?

I have a VBox VM with Windows for developer support, so I know it is possible, I also know it is a bit Herculean, but the question is: "Would it make people migrate who otherwise wouldn't?", E.g. small businesses.

I am also aware of problems moving WinXP to a VM from native, but these have been fixed.

http://grahams.free-online.co.uk

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Comments
nevermind85 wrote on the 7 Jul 08 at 15:52
I don't know why people are voting this down. I think it's a nice idea to provide an option to automatically create a VM from the existing windows setup.

dino wrote on the 7 Jul 08 at 16:33
Sounds nice but...

windows would be needed to reactivated and windows will complain about a lot of "hardware" changes. Also with most vista installtions this is illegal.

nevermind85 wrote on the 8 Jul 08 at 20:01
@dino: Didn't though of that. Guess I'm way too used to the way Linux works...

Tree MendUs wrote on the 10 Jul 08 at 10:59
Another use, would be to have windows chugging away in the background, with an (virtual) internet connection, and see how long it stands up.

Maybe even use it as a honey pot on your PC and watch the traffic.

But, the licenses probably prevent this analysis from measuring the results.

Check the licenses even allow use on the same hard disk as another OS, so maybe dual boot from a second hard disk.

eventually one might make a choice and take the step into the Ubuntu OS (totally for good).

allo wrote on the 13 Jul 08 at 20:32
not even a dual-boot of windows in vmware-server and real works ... windows bluescreens, because vmware-server uses scsi instead of ide drive, because ubuntu names the hdX sdX, like scsi devices. And windows (XP) does not like a disk-type change.


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