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

[Dave Froble]

On 1/31/2019 12:06 AM, IanD wrote:
> CentOS is loved because it's the free arm of redhat
>
> David, VM's are addictive, once you try them out you'll love and appreciate the flexibility they bring
>
> Sure, there's some fun about learning various switches and unique configuration setting on hardware panels but as get older that fun slowly fades and your left just wanting to get a job done
>
> Virtualbox is ok and had got better. VMware workstation used to be awesome until they fired all the developers and did the development offshore somewhere.
>
> You could always sign up for something like AWS or azure free tier (you basically get a year for free) and play with spinning up and down instances. AWS makes it very easy.
> There plenty of YouTube videos walking you through the process
>
> After playing with VM's you'll start to feel somewhat frustrated when you go back to physical hardware, but that's it's terrible, it's just that VM's open up an order of flexibility that you don't realise you missed because you never had it :-)
>

Well, I downloaded Virtual Box V6.??, and tried to install it on a 32 
bit Win XP box.  No luck, it needs 64 bit WEENDOZE.

I had a V4.2.? I must have downloaded in the past.  No longer supported, 
but, I doubt it stopped working just because it's no longer supported. 
Installed fine on the box.

Created a new VM.  Then loaded 32 bit WEENDOZE 7 on it.  That seems to 
almost work Ok.  I'm having a problem getting the VM instance to see 
other computers on my network.  Playing with it, I may have made things 
worse.  Oh, well, that's what learning is all about.

I have a newer system, with 32 bit WEENDOZE 7 that I use when I need to 
test TLS V1.2.  Other than that, I really don't like the newer versions. 
  Something about "old dog" and "new tricks" I guess.

My current plan is to install WEENDOZE 7 64 bit on the newer system, and 
I think I'll need to get lots more memory, and more disk space.  Always 
wondered what someone would do with hundreds, or thousands, of GB of 
storage.  Now I know at least one reason.  A reason for more memory too.

I'm figuring then I can create multiple VM instances, and build various 
OSs on them.  One problem with newer HW is that there are few if any 
drivers for WEENDOZE XP that the newer HW requires.  Now, perhaps, I'll 
be able to run older stuff on the newer HW, in VM instances.  Hmmm, is 
"instances" the correct name for the multiple VMs?  Maybe even MS-DOS? 
Or WEENDOZE 95?

Same as VMS will be able to run on HW for which it has no drivers, huh?

I'll toy around with the stuff for a bit, then set up the "real" VMs.

A question, does anyone know if I can take an existing system and move 
it to a VM?  I'm guessing I can "export" stuff to another system.  But I 
might want to keep some older stuff without having to re-install everything.

Another recent thing I've done is acquire a network based storage box, 
and set up two 500 GB disks in a RAID 1 array.  The thought is to keep 
just about all of "my" stuff on that box, and the "computers" will have 
just the OS and re-loadable apps.  The box has a USB port, and I do a 
weekly backup to a one TB USB disk.  Plenty of storage for me, for now.

So, I can envision one storage box for all VM instances.  Sound reasonable?

One problem, it's a bit like "work" and I don't like "work" anymore.

-- 
David Froble                       Tel: 724-529-0450
Dave Froble Enterprises, Inc.      E-Mail: davef at tsoft-inc.com
DFE Ultralights, Inc.
170 Grimplin Road
Vanderbilt, PA  15486