[Info-vax] OpenVMS on x86 and Virtual Machines -- An Observation

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2019-01-30 22:06:41 +0000, Dave Froble said:

> I really should start getting some experience with VMs.  Any 
> suggestions for good ones for a beginner to learn?  Is using WEENDOZE 
> to run the VM Ok?  Or do I need to learn to run some Linux?  Which one?

To get started?  To learn?  Run what you have.

Microsoft Hyper-V is part of the Windows 8 Pro and higher-spec 
packages, and of later Windows Pro and higher-spec packages.

VSI has discussed Xen, kvm and VirtualBox and those on Linux, though 
that list may well vary.

VirtualBox runs on various platforms.

Beyond the emulator, Linux and Unix is knowledge can be useful, though 
it's a fair jump from Windows and OpenVMS.

Linux scale and scope and tooling is far past OpenVMS, too.

Windows Services for Linux (WSL) can be a reasonable introduction to 
Linux on Windows 10.

Or booted as a guest in a hypervisor, of course.

Lots of options for Linux distros.  Lots of opinions here, too.

Local Linux use is primarily Kali, with some interest in Black Arch and 
Arch Linux. Those are not for what you're doing, though.

Local preference is for BSD distros, and particularly for macOS for client.

macOS can provide a fairly gentle introduction to Unix, and to newer 
development tools, languages and approaches.

I've worked with VirtualBox, VMware Fusion and Parallels Desktop on 
macOS, and with some other VMs. There are options.

If you want to tie into VMware and its tooling on macOS, then Fusion.  
That's not something you'll be interested quite yet, though.

And there'll be some frustration, whenever learning something new and 
different.




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