Windows XP with VirtualBox on Ubuntu

For the average user, making the long-awaited switch to Linux seems quite challenging. The open source community has worked tirelessly to tempt the main stream crowd to the penguin world, and after many Linux distributions, Ubuntu has come through the ranks as the obvious choice for any newcomer willing to abandon the commercial world for the real one. Ubuntu’s slogan says it all: Linux for human beings.

Ubuntu logo and slogan

In many cases, Ubuntu’s new releases do not offer obvious improvements, especially from the eyes of a skeptical Windows addict. Fortunately, April’s release of Ubuntu, Jaunty Jackalope, brings to the table the sort of features that are immediately noticeable, including an enhanced interface, improved performance, and an overwhelmingly extensive hardware support.

Indeed, with Ubuntu 9.04 there has never been a better time to switch to Linux. Nothing beats having free, open source software, with impressive performance, tight security, and the fact that it just works! Pop in the CD and test out the Live edition to get a complete idea of how exactly it will look and function. Moreover, the installation takes less than 20 minutes, and you won’t break a sweat.

Making the switch is difficult for many reasons, and that is a whole topic of its own. However, it is suffice to say that the one functionality commonly demanded by stubborn Windows users, is the ability to run certain specialized programs that are not available on Linux. Even if there are equivalents offered for Linux, it is to a certain extent understandable that users will need to either stick to their programs on Windows, or at least make the gradual shift to the Linux equivalent. This is precisely where VirtualBox comes in.

Install Ubuntu and run Windows virtually on top

VirtualBox is a free, open source virtualizer available for (almost) all operating systems allowing you to install an OS on top of another. In this case, it is the ideal solution for the regular user looking to move to Linux. After installing Ubuntu 9.04 on your computer, and installing VirtualBox from the Add/Remove Applications, you can easily install Windows virtually over Ubuntu, thus granting yourself access to the Windows-only applications that you need. As long as your processor is relatively recent, and you have over 2GB of RAM, you should be good to go, and installing Windows virtually would be a great idea, regardless of how frequently you plan to use it.

The steps are pretty straight forward:

1. Open VirtualBox and click on the New button
2. This will prompt the wizard, click Next to continue
3. Enter a desired name (for example: MyWindows). Then choose Microsoft Windows in the Operating System field, and Windows XP for the version
4. Choose how much memory you would like to dedicate to the virtual installation (in this case, Windows XP). This comes down to personal preference, really, and I recommend half of your RAM to the new virtual machine
5. For the Virtual Hard Disk, you’re going to need to create one to use it. This will be the file on your computer that Windows XP will treat as it’s hard disk. Therefore, click new:
   1. This will start another wizard, so click Next to continue
   2. Choose the type of storage. Again, personal preference. I tend to stick to Dynamically expanding storage since I’m never exactly sure how much space I will end up needing for Windows. If you’re still hesitant, check out the Virtuatopia explanation
   3. Choose the location for the hard disk data on your computer, as well as how big you would like the file to be. I personally think a Windows XP installation with some basic programs will need 10GB or more, but then again, that depends on the space available on your local machine, as well as the applications you are planning on installing
   4. Now that the hard disk file is created, click on finish to return to the main wizard
6. Choose the file that you have just created for the Boot Hard Disk field and click Next
7. After reviewing the short summary, click finish and the virtual machine will have been created!

VirtualBox home showing Windows

NOTE: That does not mean that Windows XP has been installed on Ubuntu. It means that the virtual machine where Windows will be installed is ready to go.

Now all you need to do is to insert the Windows XP installation CD, and start the virtual machine that you had created. After that, you can follow the regular steps for installing Windows, as if on a normal machine.

The result: A fresh Ubuntu installation that provides a fast, secure, and absolutely free user experience, with access to Windows on top of Linux in case you still rely on some Windows-based applications. It is also very useful for designers looking to test how a website renders on Windows’ browsers like Internet Explorer. In all cases, it is very easy, and everything besides Windows is free and open source. You can’t beat that.

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Cloud Computing With eyeOS

The move towards online storage and web applications has been going on for a while. Soon enough, users will enjoy the ability to combine all of the documents and applications in central places so that they can be easily accessed from any computer via the internet. With the advancement of services and online applications available for free, plus the high-connection speeds available everywhere, it’s only logical to rely less on the local machines, and to take the tasks and documents on the move.

A group of youngsters from Barcelona started eyeOS back in 2005 with a clear vision of the future of the web. eyeOS is an open source operating system that is built to be placed entirely on a given server and accessed remotely. This basically means that it is no more than a simple, yet comprehensive, script that you upload to your server. It gives you an interface that is very similar to that of a Linux distribution made for the desktop, only tailored to work entirely online. Therefore, you can access your eyeOS from anywhere, view/edit/share all of your documents that are stored remotely, use the web applications available, and more.

Here are some screen captures that can help you visualize what it’s like (you can see the full set of screenshots at the eyeOS website):

eyeOS login

eyeOS desktop

Browse/add applications

The features of a self-hosted cloud operating system in general, and eyeOS in particular, are endless. The ones that stand out are the following:

1. Free and open source: Yet another beautiful product from the open source community. No need to pay anything whatsoever, and you have the advantage of constant free updates
2. Everything on your server: You no longer have to worry about carrying everything with you, moving things between computers, etc. With eyeOS, you potentially have all of your needs in one place to be accessed from anywhere. Moreover, you install it on your own server, meaning you have full access with complete freedom
3. Sharing documents: Now that you have all of your documents in one place, you can take advantage of the public folder to place all of the files that you would like others to access. Not to mention that you can allow people to sign up for accounts, or create accounts on their behalf, granting them access to certain directories. The best method to share photos, documents, etc.
4. Web applications: the eyeOS developers’ community is constantly growing offering tons of free web applications to install on your OS. Now you can view and edit all of the office documents, for example, directly on your remote server. There are more and more applications available, all free and open-source. It already comes packed with applications such as an FTP client and an RSS reader

So where’s the catch? There isn’t really, it’s only a matter of time before everyone fully relies on eyeOS and the likes. For the time-being, there are some drawbacks:

1. Speed and performance: Remember, everything is done via remote server. You need to have a very high speed internet connection, otherwise simple tasks might be somewhat frustrating. I personally think a 10Mbps broadband speed would be ideal, any less, and you might not appreciate its efficiency
2. Application list: Although still growing, it’s obviously still lacking many of those applications that users have taken for granted on any given OS
3. Upload limit: Many servers do not allow you to upload files of over 2MB in size via HTTP. Sadly, unless that changes, than a lot of time will be wasted moving large documents to the remote server via an external FTP client

The best part of it all is how easy it is to install and run. All you need to do is:

• Go to http://www.eyeos.org/ and download the file
• Using an FTP client (needless to say, FileZilla is the best), upload the directory to whatever location you want on your website
• Direct your browser to that directory (for example: www.mysite.com/eyeos), a click or two, and voila! You’ve successfully installed eyeOS

It is clear that eyeOS is the future of the web. Relying less on individual PCs and centralizing data is the way to go. As more and more developers join the project, and as the internet reaches further and at higher speeds, there will be very little preventing the regular users from going open source, and functioning fully online.

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What We Know About Google Chrome OS

Google Chrome logo

On the 7th of July, technology giants Google announced that they will release their own Operating System late 2010. It seems like it was nothing more than the worst kept secret of recent times, as there is very little known about it, and nothing will become clear until we near its release in a year’s time.

Having said that, there has been a bit of talk, and this article by Jason Hiner of TechRepublic gives an excellent explanation of what we know about the new OS, and its importance to us (or lack of).

In summary, Google will release an Operating System, like Windows and Mac OS, that is based on the Linux kernal. There are currently hundreds of different Linux distributions available, all free and open-source. Normally, each distro offers something different, or is geared towards a certain audience. In the case of Chrome OS, Google aims to create a very light and fast OS that is targeting netbooks, and is based on the fact that its users do almost everything on the Internet. This means that people will use remote servers to store their data (therefore no need for back-up), and web applications for their daily tasks (meaning less need for any applications to be installed on the local machine).

At the moment it is way too early to tell how successful this project is going to be. But one thing is for sure, and it’s that the consumers can always use more competition, and a new OS (it could be argued that it’s no more than a new distro, but it is still marketed as a new OS) would encourage Microsoft and Apple to constantly improve. Moreover, it could be a point of enthusiasm for Linux-supporters, as it is potentially the entrance to the Linux globe for regular users world-wide.

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