

Run Windows Apps Seamlessly Inside Linux - marrone
http://lifehacker.com/367714/run-windows-apps-seamlessly-inside-linux

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marrone
It is basically very similar to Parallels for Mac though I am running it on
Ubuntu, and it is free. It works quite well.

I use it solely for web developement and testing exlporer and other browsers
on windows, and was actually able to get Windows to access my lamp server
running locally on Ubuntu by using NAT and modifying the hosts file to point
my named virtual hosts to 10.0.2.2.

So if anyone has being dual-booting for the same purpose, or using VMware,
this is an excellent alternative.

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pmjordan
I've been using VirtualBox OSE for running XP on my OpenSUSE desktop,
completely unaware of this special display mode, so I'll have to give that a
go. So far, I've just switched the VirtualBox window to fullscreen mode on a
spare virtual KDE desktop, so it's actually quite usable even then.

I have to say I'm pretty impressed with VirtualBox so far. I've had all sorts
of trouble with Xen in the past, so I'm slowly phasing those VMs out in favour
of VirtualBox. I prefer Xen conceptually, but it's just too damn flaky for the
real world.

One VirtualBox tip: using virtualisation instructions on recent CPUs seems to
be off by default, and it's worth enabling for the speedup if you've got the
hardware.

As for networking, I'm using bridging, (see e.g.:
[<http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Advanced_Networking_Linux>]) so the virtual
machine is an equal peer in my LAN.

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marrone
Im no networking expert, but just modifying the window hosts file to point my
named virtual hosts to 10.0.2.2 achieves exactly what I am after: the ability
to edit my files using VIM in Ubuntu, and see the changes take effect
immediately Windows side.

I didnt got the 'seamless' route suggested in the article, instead I only went
as far as installing the GuestAdditions which solved a few minor nitpicks, and
everything is perfect now.

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Hexstream
So... that's like a compatibility layer for viruses?

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TrevorJ
Ooh, thanks for the post, I find this to be sexy.

