[ Note: this is long, and much of it is off-topic for a Linux
discussion group. I do mention SL 6 virtualization tools several
times, and switching a "dump" based backup to "tar",  which I hope
keeps it on topic here. ]

On Wed, Jul 4, 2012 at 9:02 PM, Todd And Margo Chester
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> On 07/04/2012 05:24 PM, Nico Kadel-Garcia wrote:
>>
>> A better solution is to discard XP. Seriously,
>
>> mainstream support ended in 2009: it's time to get off it
>
>
> Ha Ha.  You crack a funny!

No, really. Getting XP running on new hardware has gotten far more
difficult due to unavailabale drivers, updated security or bug patches
for many packages are unavailable for the old architecture, and  new
software components that one might want to run in combination with
existing software are not available.

It's very similar to the cries of "I won't upgrade, you can't make me,
I can backport anything I need" issues with developers I've been
seeing since...... oh, dear lord, BSD 4.2 in 1988 and *every single
DOS, Windows, MacOS,UNIX or Linux release I've dealt with since then*.

> XP is twice as fast and 10 times more stable.  M$ has
> to come up with something better before I make an
> impossible (software supported under XP but not W7)
> migration.

This isn't the place for me to get into performance and overall
security issues of Windows. What's the software? And have you tried it
on Windows 7, under virtualization? I can believe that it's not
*efficient* there, but eventually the new hardware is so much faster
that it's more feasible.

> I still have customers that "beg" me to make them
> XP machines.  (I will do W7 or XP, if they need
> Windows.  Whatever they want. I refuse to do the "Home"
> versions of Windows.)

And I've had clients beg me to provide Red Hat 7.2, in the last 3
years. I even got it running, so I could compile some software and
forward port it. Then I got them *off* it. Even in a "secure, local"
environment, I don't want to run something that old that predates
important POSIX changes and basic C, Perl, or other language
standards.

> My VM's:
>    XP
>    Vista (deleted)
>    W7 Pro
>    Fedora Code 16
>    Fedora Core 17 Xfce Live CD
>    ReactOS  (useless)
>    W8 consumer preview  (Oh Boy!)

I've virtualized all of those.as well. (You're right, ReactOS is not
ready for prime time.) Virtuanlizing many of them under KVM was......
awkward. I' worked with Xen, VirtualBox, and VMware, and KVM had
interfaces so bad and configuration integration so bad, it's the only
one I rejected out of hand.

Admittedly, I've not tried it since SL 6.0. Has it gotten any better?

> I wish more of my customers used Linux, but the
> software base is not there and Wine is in Alpha stage.

And will never leave Alpha. Lack of acces to the unpublished API's is
deadly to emulation (which is a short-cut description for what WINE
does).

> By the way, when I do migrate programs from XP, I
> migrate them to Wine.  I have nothing in the other
> Windows that I actually use.  They are there
> for me to test things for my customers.

OK, Then turn off XP when you're doing backups. Oh, yeah, you're using
KVM. Is it still wildly unstable and corrupts XP fileystems itself
when you try to shut down XP guests from the Linux command line,
rather than from the VNC displa or a remote desktip access?

Or, stop trying to talk to the disk directly and move away from the
"dump" command. Rsync works very well, and tar and star are not only
well supported, they're well supported by the Amanda backup software.

> By the way, M$ has what is called "Legacy support"
> for XP users.

Yes, and it mostly consists of Microsoft call centers saying "you
should upgrade!" Providing active updates to a legacy operating system
is difficult, expensive, and often a fiscal dead end. It can also be
career death for the people doing it, which is why they run so fast.
(I do a lot of it, but work very hard to get people on the upgrade
path away from something I can't support long term.)

> This video will help you understand.  MAKE SURE YOU
> ARE NOT EATING OR DRINKING ANYTHING WHEN YOU WATCH IT!!!
> You choke to death, not my problem!

No, that (admittedly funny) comedy sketch was about Vista. I agree
that your customers should avoid Vista, even in virtualizatoin on
Scientific Linux. (Do *NOT* put Vista on raw hardware: the stability
is vastly improvied by using a stabe Linux environment with stable
drivers and virtualizing it.)