Got a new box almost a month ago. Havn't wanted to start configuring it cause I know the time (and pain) it takes to get it configured. Let me tell you a little about how I would like my box to be
1. SQL 2005
2. VS 2005
3. Virtual box with AMP (apache, Mysql, php)
I was also keen on trying out Vista, since it came preinstalled on the box I thought, why not,
Now that is how it looks in my world - however when considering my customer projects that I still need to be able to support/debug/compile etc I need
4. VS 2003
5. SQL 2000
(it was about a year ago I got rid of the last VB6 project so at least I wont need old Visual Studio 97).
And to add to it - one clients VPN only works with Windows XP - meaning Vista was out of the question. But I decided to
still give it a try. So the plan was to use use Vista as host and install XP as a virtual machine.
Vista (host OS)
-SQL 2005
-VS 2005
-code directory (shared)
XP (in virtual box)
-VPN client
- VS 2003
- SQL 2000
- code taken from shared directory on host
I was really happy when I had spent the hours needed to install VMWare server (cause I wanna run Ubuntu as well)
and installed XP inside, installed the VPN and got it working - and installed VS2003. Last thing was to really try to compile -
and here the BIG problems started. First I had big trouble getting the boxes to talk to each other at all, but finally
I got a grip on how things should be configured in Vista to allow disk sharing. However - no matter how I tried the performance between the two were painfully slow. On a GB network I made around 20 KB/s. Yes I didn't mistype - 20 KILOBIT... Coping a VS 2005 simple project of around 30 source files whould take me 34 minutes or so...
lso:
From XP to another (real) XP box on the network performance was normal
From another(real) XP to Vista operformance was normal
Now it was sunday afternoon - I had spent friday and saturday night on this and really wanted to be done by monday morning. So I gave up.I wiped the Vista box and installed XP. Now I got the problem of the OS not finding drivers for network, sound card etc (think the motherboard's too new). Found an old USB network interface to plugin to connect to Internet and start searching for drivers. And finally I got most parts working...
Other from the host OS I have the same configuration as I wanted. Not it works like a charm - and actually the overall performance IS better in XP than in Vista - at least that's what I think.
To end it up - this post is not a flame on Vista, it might very well be me being not clever enough, for example there are a some reports on VMWare Server trouble with XP - but the truth is I shouldn't have to care. The most important thing for me is to get my system working according to what I and my customers need and XP - not Vista - was the solution once again.
Hopefully I will get my Vista install sometime - but the reality is that's not MY decision - but rather my clients in a way.