On Sat, 14 Feb 2009 11:31:41 +0000, Orchid XP v8 wrote:

> OK, so I need to do some stuff that will only work on Linux.
> 
> What I *could* do is set up a Linux system under QEMU, but that's quite
> slow. So I thought I'd go with VirtualBox instead.
> 
> Nuhuh. Apparently VirtualBox is "free" so long as you only use it for a
> week or two. You can also obtain a copy licenced under the GPL, but then
> you have to compile it from source yourself. (Which, obviously, is
> impossible.)

I know many people who have run VirtualBox from downloaded binaries and 
it hasn't been "time bombed".  There is a pay-for version, but there's 
also a free version.

In fact, just looking here now, Virutalbox-OSE is the name of the package 
on OpenSUSE 11.0.  OSE = Open Source Edition.

> OK then. So how about VMserver then?
> 
> Nuhuh. They're demanding a real email address before they will let me
> download the product, and it looks like they're going to demand that I
> "activate" it after it's installed.

VMware Server does require a "real" e-mail address, but the system will 
accept mailinator.com e-mail addresses if you don't want to provide a 
real address.

And it doesn't require activation, you just need a license key.  I have 
it installed on a system.

> So can anybody suggest a virtual machine implementation that really *is*
> free? (And works hosted on Windows.)

I would go with VMware Server for cross-platform support.

Jim

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