[doomlord289]

I am buying a new laptop for college soon. It (unfortunately) comes with Windows XP (Media Center 2005 or Pro) or Windows Vista (Home Basic, Home Premium, or Ultimate) preinstalled. I would like to make a dual boot machine using Ubuntu as my primary OS. I would also like to use several Windows-only programs. It would be nice if instead of rebooting to Windows every time I needed something I could just open a virtual machine in Ubuntu and have it boot my Vista (possibly XP) installation. Is this possible? Could I wipe the hard drive when I get it and use the recovery disks to do a virtual installation once I get Ubuntu running? Or should I just suck it up and reboot when I need to use Windows?

Suggestions on VM software (preferably free, but doesn't have to be) and other techniques are welcome. Thank you for your time.

[briealeida]

Depends on how much memory you have. If you have the RAM to do it, virtual computing is quite fun! If your machine isn't quite there yet with hardware, you might want to go with the dual boot.

To find VMs, try here: easyvmx.com

[DoubleHelix]

You're not going to be able to use the restore disks to install a virtual machine. Those disks are tied to the physical hardware. You would have to buy a separate license and CD.

[doomlord289]

briealeida:
Here's the specs for my future laptop:
Alienware Area-51 m9750
Video/Graphics Card: 512MB NVidia GeForce Go 7950 GTX
Chassis: 17" WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD with Clearview Technology - Stealth Black
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7600 2.33GHz 4MB Cache 667MHz FSB
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz - 2 x 1024MB
Operating System: Windows Vista Ultimate - With USB Mini Media Center Remote Control and Single NTSC TV Tuner
System Drive: Extreme Performance (RAID 0) - 500GB (250GB x 2) Serial ATA 1.5Gb/s 5,400 RPM w/ 8MB Cache
Primary CD ROM/DVD ROM: 8x Dual Layer CD-RW/DVD±RW Burner
Wireless Network Card: Internal Intel® PRO Wireless 3945 a/b/g Mini-Card
Sound Card: High-Definition Audio with surround sound

I believe that it could handle virtualization. I plan to use VMware as that is what I am experimenting with now, but I will definitely check out that site. Thank you.


DoubleHelix:
So in order to virtualize Windows I would have to buy another copy of the same OS I've already bought?

[DoubleHelix]

The copy of Windows that comes with the computer is tied to just that computer. It can't be used on any other hardware including virtual hardware. It's unlikely to install anyway if you tried.

[doomlord289]

MS just keeps giving me more and more reasons to hate them. I guess I'll dual boot it then. Thank you all for your help.

Thread is solved.