For my non-techie friends: I swear I’ll stop obsessing about this soon.
So if I’m running Linux in Windows courtesy of VMWare Player, why can’t I run Windows in Linux the same way? I know , so maybe I can just make that my solution. I mostly need to run Paint Shop Pro 9 (, learning curve is too high on Gimp) and Microsoft OneNote (doesn’t play nicely with Wine and ; but it’s not pretty – I tried it). Although I’m using Ubuntu right this moment, it’s a bit laggy – no surprise since I’m running it on a virtual machine. But I want to do most of my work in Linux, so why not flip the software and make Windows my laggy OS? Of course, this brings up all kinds of issues with backing up data, partitioning, and who knows what-all else. But still, it’s an idea. It’s definitely the only way OneNote will run.
If you feel particularly geeky, you can download the VMware server (free), install it on linux, and then create a Windows VM inside that.
I used to run WinXP in VirtualBox on Ubuntu. I have not had to smack myself in the face with a concrete block studded with sharp spikes and broken glass run Windows for quite some time, so I haven’t used it in a while. But, VirtualBox2.0 has an official repository that will update regularly.
Some things don’t translate well. I currently use a Dell Inspiron 1720 laptop because I live by my numeric keypad. The Windows installation of iTunes cannot copy music from my CDs – I have to copy them to WAV in Ubuntu, use the shared folder to move them between Lin and Win (VMWare lacks this extremely important feature!), import them into iTunes then compress them to MP4 for the iPod.
Also, the Netflix-on-demand service is slightly degraded. Livable, though.
I know this is an older post (Just discovered your blog today and am devouring it ravenously
) but that sort of arrangement hasn’t changed much between Ubuntu 7.10 and 8.10 .
I have not had to smack myself in the face with a concrete block studded with sharp spikes and broken glass run Windows for quite some time
Yeah. The “smack myself…broken glass” was behind a strikeout tag, but the WordPress editor apparently doesn’t recognize the “s” “/s” set of markup tags.
It has to be Windows, since I would not be able to play Wow ono Linux.
I read this post for nothing then. 
Nice blog you have! Eric