Re: Solaris X86 + Virtual PC on a MAC
From: Stuart Blake Tener (stuart_at_misty.com)
Date: 03/23/04
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Date: 23 Mar 2004 01:33:40 -0800
"Steve Jain" <essjae-No@Spam-hotmail.com> wrote in message news:s65n50tbmqki4iu0isfpdrqlp5dr0bk2rb@4ax.com...
> Well, I worked at Connectix for two years. I've used versions 3,4,5,
> and 6 of VPC-Mac and versions 4, 5, and 2004 for VPC-Win.
Ah, that explains your knowledge of something you never tried! :)
>
> I've seen Solaris 8 and 9 run on a VPC-Win box and VPC-Win performance
> is much better than on VPC-Mac, because VPC-Win doesn't need to
> emulate the CPU. VPC-Win Windows VMs approache 90% of the performance
> of the host Windows, you won't get that kind of ratio with VPC-Mac.
Since I do Unix administration (Solaris, Linux, Aix, and a few others
less frequently) the idea of having
a Unix based OS that backs the OS I use to run my daily application
mix is very inviting, especially for
the fact that MS Office, Adobe, and some other core applications can
run natively under said OS. The
Linux operating system / environmennt was to be my save all, but the
speed with which OpenOffice or
Star Office has been able to adopt a "look and feel" that is very
similar to MS Word/Excel, etc., has I
feel been disappointingly lethargic.
Now that Office is running under Mac OS X, perhaps one day Microsoft
will leverage that port for an
offering of MS Office for Linux. However, even at this point, I do
think that a Mac with OS X has the
added benefit of a more integrated and mature application mix; though
Linux has a very big place in my
heart forever! What I have longed for is a Unix environment that is
commercially support that has also a
commercial mix of the applications I need. Apple presents that
environment to me.
All that being said, Solaris (running under Bochs under Mac OS X, or
under VPC under Mac OS X)
would more be the kind of thing that I'd use it for testing when doing
work for a client that has Solaris
not as my primary Unix environment. If I am writing a script that is
to run under Solaris and I wish for
the script to be tested under Solaris, thats what I use it for. But, I
do want it to run relateively speedly
if I can have that. Though a G? that has one of the new 2.x or 3.x
processors might be the way for me
to accomplish that even with emulation of an X86 under Mac OS X when
Apple produces laptops to
leverage those future processors. I have to admit, I do not understand
why Apple is so far behind with
using processors that are more competitive to X86 speed processors.
Though for the amount of time
I run Solaris I could have a laptop (X86 based) for that, it would not
be the end of the world, just
terribly convenient if I could do it on a Mac with a speed that didnt
make me wait too long when using
it.
I also would test BOCHS under Mac OS X as well, though their video
support is only at 1024x768,
and I am not even sure if BOCHS can have higher video support
resolutions even if you use a BIOS
that is "ripped" from a video card. Well maybe "ripped" is a bad word,
as you could purchase a video
card, use the BIOS from it with BOCHS and keep the video card unused
in a drawer. I imagine that
might not be a violation of the licensing agreement for the video BIOS
maybe, but still I do not know
that it would even work with BOCHS.
>
> Solaris 8 or 9 on VPC-Win is too slow to be useful for anything other
> than playing around with. Also, theren't any VPC Additions for
> Solaris, or any *nix based OSes, including Linux. The VPC additions
> are what provide the performance enhancements, mouse integration and
> proper time sync with the host OS.
Well, playing around with Solaris or Linux would be most of what I
would be doing with it, not using
it as a server or anything like that. However, I would want the mouse
to work, the video to be at the
minimum level of 1024x768, and for the time to be correct based on the
system clock as well as not
having a reasonable response time.
Perhaps BOCHS is my best choice for Linux and Solaris, and VPC-Mac is
my best choice for using
Windows (2K and XP).
>
> If you take a look at probably the biggest complaint for VPC in these
> newgroups, you'll see its speed. That is with a supported OS,
> Windows, and with the VPC Additions which provide any/all performance
> enhancements to increase the speed of a VM in VPC.
>
> I can't answer your questions regarding Bochs as I don't use it.
> However, you'll likely see similar performance issues since Bochs will
> also need to emulate the CPU as well as the rest of the virtual
> machine.
Well when I get my Mac, I will try both, and if worse comes to worse,
I will still keep a PC about to
do things like work in a Solaris environment when I need too.
By the way, since a Mac is a PowerPC, do you know if AIX can be
installed on the Mac at all?
Thanks,
Stuart
PS - sorry it took me so long to get back to you, been busy the last
week!
>
> On Fri, 19 Mar 2004 14:31:46 -0800, "Stuart Blake Tener"
> <stuart@misty.com> wrote:
>
> >Steve:
> >
> >on what basis do you make the ascertion that Solaris 9 runs "too slowly to
> >be useful" if you have never installed it?
> >
> >Solaris does (as I undertand, though I have NOT yet tried it) install okay
> >using BOCHS.
> >
> >The question that I have is will BOCHS be defficient any features if
> >compiled under Mac OS X or some Mac Linux version?
> >
> >Stuart
> >
> >
> >
> >"Steve Jain" <essjae-No@Spam-hotmail.com> wrote in message
> >news:ineh50dbva7ukhs9dqeh45hj9sjfe4v5ao@4ax.com...
> >> I've never tried Solaris 9, I've heard that it doesn't work. Also,
> >> there's not much point in even bothering installing Solaris since it
> >> performs so slowly its useless.
> >>
> >> On 17 Mar 2004 08:06:12 -0800, demazza@mac.com (Dave Mazza) wrote:
> >>
> >> >Steve Jain <essjae-No@Spam-hotmail.com> wrote in message
> >news:<dgbf50p9pcd8id6db22hfbns2addal4fo3@4ax.com>...
> >> >> If you want to see Solaris boot up and look at it, it works. If you
> >> >> want to use Solaris for anything, you wont' be happy. The performance
> >> >> is not usable.
> >> >>
> >> >> Microsoft only officially supports Windows for VPC-Mac. Other OSes
> >> >> will probably work, but will perform poorly and have other issues,
> >> >> like the clock running slow, etc.
> >> >>
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >Steve,
> >> >
> >> >I tried to install x86 Solaris 9.0, I got to the part that the install
> >> >tells me that it won't install on a 486.... how did you get past that?
> >> >
> >> >Any/all info would be apriciated!
> >> >
> >> >Thanks
> >>
> >> Steve Jain, Microsoft MVP for Virtual PC for Windows
> >> Website: http://www.essjae.com
> >
>
> Steve Jain, Microsoft MVP for Virtual PC for Windows
> Website: http://www.essjae.com
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