[nycbug-talk] Microsoft VirtualPC for Mac

[Isaac Levy]

Hi Kurt,

Darn, I have no idea how I let this thread on VirtualPC slip,

On Jun 18, 2004, at 2:03 PM, Kurt Miller wrote:

> I'm looking to replace my aging Vaio and am seriously considering
> a Mac. The one thing I will miss the most is VMWare. I use it on
> my laptop to work on OpenBSD ports while traveling. I think it
> would be fantastic if I could use Microsoft VirtualPC for Mac to
> run OpenBSD/i386. Anyone here tried it yet?
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/virtualpc/virtualpc.aspx? 
> pid=virtualpc

In a nutshell, it totally rocks for some things IMO.  I happily can  
hardly function without my powerbook, and have installed all of  
OpenBSD, FreeBSD, and NetBSD using VirtualPC- and even last month was  
screwing around with CARP/pfsync (hysterically unsucessfully for my  
first shots with it)...  Great for dev work and trying things out.

If you want to run x11 stuff, Apple's x11 is really nice to work with-  
I'd not muck about with VirtualPC to run that stuff.

Anyhow, so far, I have only found one fairly esoteric drawback for it:
The networking is wonkie for mobile use.  The 'NAT' networking provides  
an interface which doesn't let multiple VirtualPC instances see each  
other on the network.  The 'VirtualRouter' alternative setting, means  
you need a router external to the box your on, in order to give the  
VirtualPC instances a route to each other...  Also, a drawback, it only  
functions on a primary ethernet nic- not over a wifi interface for some  
reason...

This was only a problem when I was trying to test some setups for some  
nfs mounting and carp/pfsync stuff- but that stuff I got worked out  
from home where my router is my own... :)

Other than that, it's totally a sweet app IMO- and works amazingly  
well- (even tested a make world upgrade on a FreeBSD install).  A  
colleauge of mine even directly replicated a running server, in order  
to test a bunch of massive changes which could destroy the box...

If you want to see it in action, email me before the next meeting so I  
bring my rig...

Rocket-
.ike