So, I wanted to install VS 2005 Beta 2 so that I can play with it before (and at) Tech·Ed. Well rather than install it rught my laptop (in case of any potential conflict or crash or whatever) I decided to install it in a virtual machine. On my work laptop I installed VMWare Workstation and on my own laptop I installed Microsoft Virtual PC.
Both were incredibly slow. I mean painful. Granted each machine has only 512MB of RAM, but I can’t believe how slow it was. S. L. O. W.
Fortunately (in a sick sense), I had a problem with my work laptop and it will need to be re-imaged. So I removed VMWare and installed Beta 2 right on the base OS.
I got it all (VS, SQL, MSDN, Visio, VSS, etc.) installed just before I left the office today. I’m hoping to get in a couple hours of “play time” before the sessions start. If anyone else is using Beta 2 already, I’d appreciate any tips or warnings you might have.
Also, if you’re going to Tech·Ed, let me know. I’m staying at Westgate Lakes Resort & Spa.
Brennan Stehling
I would like to also find a way to get VirtualPC to perform more efficiently. I also have a half gig of memory and may bump that up soon. Perhaps that is all that is needed.
Brennan Stehling
Ok, I have a little more information. I am told you can set up your virtual instances with VirtualPC and then run them with the new Virtual Server from MS which is currently a Beta. From there you can use Terminal Services to get into each instance if they are running. That may show some performance improvements. But I am pretty sure the more physical memory I can make available to the virtuals instances the faster it will be. I am sure a trip to the computer store to buy memory is in my near future.
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OK. I have VMWare running on 2Gig of Ram; it is super-fast (no problems at all). I installed VS.NET 2005 Beta 2 on one of the VM instances (Win XP Pro) and it rocks!
I also took some snapshots in VMWare to roll back some installations; it rocks again!
You can’t take snapshots using MS Virtual Server 2005. You can also not have Team VM setups to simulate enterprise networks. In other words: Buy VMWare for ~$180 and be very happy. Or buy MS Virtual Server 2005 for ~$300 and be not so happy.
Scott
I also think I would prefer VMWare, but haven’t tried version 5 yet. More than the VMWare vs Virtual PC/Server issue, I think what would make my experience better is have 2GB of RAM. I guess I’m just not so lucky as other people…