Virtual Server 2005 R2 and MONOPPIX= FUN?

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MS just put out Virtual Server 2005 R2 as a free download (right, its free, you don't even need a product key, and it doesn't expire, and hey-- they don't even have that absolutely NASTY "Genuine Windows Some BS" thing on the download page!)

So I got a copy -- its only 25MB - about the same size as the .NET platform FX.

Then I downloaded MONOPPIX - that's the KNOPPIX Live Linux CS with MONO pre-installed (Won't catch me messin' around with those nasty RPM's d00d).

Virtual Server 2005 R2 is very nice. You can boot off an ISO image (as above) on the hard drive, all you have to do is enter it's path. KNOPPIX booted up perfectly the first try, and everything works great.

The Viewer will remind you of the VNC Client JAVA viewer - it even runs nicely in IE7.

All is fine, except for one thing, and I doubt it has anything to do with Virtual Server - MonoDevelop, their IDE for MONO, comes up with all the text "unreadable" as if the screen resolution is too small. I couldn't find a way to fix it. Any KNOPPIX Linux geeks out there know how?

Virtual Server 2005 R2: Price, FREE. Recommended! Here's a direct link to the 32-Bit Installer, hopefully it will enable you to bypass the silly Passport registration pages. By the way, Microsoft? Are you there? You folks need to stop naming all these different things the same: "Setup.exe", OK? Just give them descriptive unique names. Just common sense, guys.

UPDATE: Mono-Live looks even better - has SharpDevelop
Peter has been active on the C# and other MS newsgroups, has had samples at gotdotnet.com (now codegallery.com) that have been downloaded over 56,000 times, and has written numerous articles for eggheadcafe.com, for which he is a co-founder, and MSDNAA sites. He has also been a technical reviewer on books from Prentice Hall, Manning and other publishers. Peter was a Microsoft MVP for 10 years. Peter was born and raised in New York City, and after a stint as a jazz musician playing contrabass with the Robert Hunt Trio, migrated to sunny Florida, where he was hired as a rookie Financial Consultant at Merrill Lynch in Orlando, specializing in Corporate Services. It was at Merrill that Peter realized computers and technology were his forte. He spent his last few years at Merrill developing real – time computerized trading and and stock charting program using advanced technical analysis indicators, some of which are his own inventions. In 1997, he moved on to architect and serve as lead developer on a number of innovative web-based and middleware solutions for the healthcare and financial services industry.

Comments

  1. Greg1:54 PM

    Maybe this will help...

    http://coolthingoftheday.blogspot.com/2005/02/tip-knoppix-cheat-code-for-virtual-pc.html
    (Which is a reblog of http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archive/2005/02/24/379505.aspx)

    "Enter this "cheat code" at the initial startup prompt when using Knoppix based Linux Live CD's under Virtual PC:

    knoppix xserver=XFree86 xmodule=s3 depth= 16

    ..."

    Hope this helps...

    ReplyDelete
  2. peterbromberg3:40 PM

    Beautiful. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous4:56 AM

    For Virtual PC/Server insights, I recommend:
    http://blogs.msdn.com/Virtual%5FPC%5FGuy/

    I love Virtual Server 2005 and its automation ability, so I blog about it as well. In contrast to Ben, I am more interested in using/automating Virtual Server capabilities to do what you want (i.e. how to script remote start/stop of Virtual machine, how to unattend install Virtual Machine Additions, how to administer Virtual Server as a non-administrator and without IIS, etc) and less about how to run arbitrary GuestOS/applications inside of the Virtual Machine.

    //David

    ReplyDelete

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