Virtual PC not for me either, so back to the future with VMWARE

Well, I recognize my ignorance. I though the so called XP Mode required the Intel vitualization. Well in fact, it seems Virtual PC has this requirement (logical in fact).

So I give up on MS Virtualization stuff. Strangely, without prompting, 7 activated itself...

I decided to try VMWARE, I requested a trial key and loaded the software. My idea is to try to use the recovery disk from the Vaio to install Vista 32 bits. I will then recover all the drivers and apps originally installed. I will use this 32 bits OS for Checkpoint access. At least that's my plan.

Unfortunately the Vaio recovery DVD crashed with a message "memory xxxxxxxx cannot be read from instruction at xxxxxxxxx" - sorry I forgot to write the exact message. I tried to run the memory diag on the VM , it passed.

By default VMWARE allocated 1GB of RAM; I tried to configure 4GB and... it worked. Well, it started to work since the re-install is still running as I am writing this. Next I will try to get back this Virtual memory...

This give me a bit of time. As most IT, I am use to throw RTFM to users but I must admit myself I don't spend that much time in the manuals of utilities or O/S. Any way I decided to go through the VMWARE workstation manual. Plenty of discoveries there that I will comment later on this blog... as soon Vista runs on 7.

7 - Virtual PC & XP Mode

Well I will not go further on the XP Mode for the Vaio. It does not install. In fact you need the Intel virtualization extension to install XP Mode. Strange. I understand that performance could be affected but not working at all...

My processor is a t6500 http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=39311&code=t6500. I must say I did not looked at that feature. It is basically in all recent desktop processor but not for in the notebook/laptop product line.

So before considering your migration, look at you processor with the utility provided by Intel
http://www.intel.com/support/processors/tools/piu/.

What's next for the Vaio? In spite of this XP Mode processor issue I will try the Virtual PC (which has the benefit of being free). And I will compare it with VMWARE workstation.

No securemote on 7 64 bits

I checked and Checkpoint Securemote is not available for 64 bits architectures (and will not be). I have not tried anything more as all my tests with vista 64 bits were negative (more or less one year ago).

Checkpoint has released a new end-point client called 'Endpoint Connect R71'. This one installed pretty well and seems working except that the customer I am connecting to does not have the latest firewall to support this new client.

Practically this one is a big typical gotcha for anybody planning a migration!

Browsing about this, I read a few things about Virtual PC and XP mode (XP mode seems to be a Virtual Machine capable of installing old apps and publish them to the Windows 7 host - kind of screen less VM). This is my next target for the Vaio. If  I can get securemote working from there, I am done.This will be an opportunity to look at Microsoft virtualization solution.

On a higher point of view, all this make me a bit laughing at our industry. A properly designed architecture should have isolated developers from this 32-64 bits issue. I understand that this affects some critical spots in an OS but why a printer driver or a network application (even if it is a driver or service) needs to be aware of that silly detail (they don't address more than 3GB as far as I know) that's a key problem. The second major issue is that most people including experienced professionals find this absolutely normal. It is NOT. OS, VM, interpreters etc should shield us from these craps: we should be in the street protesting about these nuts designs!

Think again,was all that Java and .Net fuss not about this?

You think that's not possible? When Apple migrated from the Motorola 68000 processor to the Power PC most parts of the OS was running in an emulator. So why not doing today most of this coding so it would run in a Java VM (or .Net for Microsoft)?

Frankly there is an habit here for not looking at all these undelivered promises! Why? In my opinion because the industry analyst have an over sized ego and exhibit the common weakness that sustains major failures: the inability to recognize their own mistakes.

By the way I did one on this blog. I read that 7 has a disk burner application. I will try this later.

Windows 7 64 bits & HP Laserjet 3550N

May be this will help somebody. I decided to try the Vista 64 bits drivers for my HP Laserjet 3550N on my Windows 7 and it works without a glitch ! Why is HP announcing this as not supported. Again mysterious.

Next I will try to get Checkpoint Securemote at work...

Windows 7

I re-installed again the new Vaio. This time with Windows Vista Ultimate. The install is very smooth and quick. Of course I lost the pre-installed application given with Vista. The most annoying being the CD burner. Why is this not bundled in a product called 'Ultimate' is a mystery.

The net result of installing a 64 bits OS is that I have now 2GB free on 4GB. So be happy that the half  RAM  of your new still idle, unused computer is free...

I must say that I was a bit confused about Microsoft OS naming. 95,XP,2000.. Vista and now 7...

May be, because, ideally you should have 7GB of RAM to get 4 free... or may be because I will have to wait 7 months to get drivers for my HP3550.

I must admit this HP printer was a bad choice, not because it is a bad printer but because some processing is off loaded to the host driver which is then more complicated and basically available much after anything... on board PCL and Postcript printers are much better supported. One remark, it now prints remarkably well from Linux.

Another  point: 7 seems to go on the hard disk for no reason every 20 seconds...strange...

So getting the right OS is still not easy. I prefer Windows to get Office - more used but also much more useful than Open-Office. It is good to remind that the common cut & paste is in most case not working between Linux apps.

I like Linux for the OpenERP and development in general. Vista is crap in average, XP becomes outdated and the XP64 bits support is problematic (drivers, apps) ,Windows 7 lacks some drivers.

Using VMWARE is of course an alternative. Although it  adds complexity on everything (cut & paste works even less in this case). My idea was to use Windows as a host for my VM. The reason was that I expected to carry this Vaio much more than the previous HP to replace my classical notebook. So the starting time of a session with Office is critical.

Summary for this sunny Sunday: getting it all at work is still not easy !