I've been toying with virtual machines for a while, I absolutely love exploring old operating systems like DOS and the very early versions of Windows.

Virtual machines are basically emulators of other operating systems that borrow resources from your actual computer in order to run. If you have a strong enough computer that basically means you could run Windows 7 inside another Windows 7.

Have you ever used a virtual machine, or would you be willing to try it?

Yes, I have used virtual machines before and they are fun to play around with when you're bored and feeling nostalgic.

I was born in the year 1998 and literally the first operating system I have ever used was Windows 98. Fun times. I'm not sure why but I somehow love Windows 98. 

I still have it on a Vmware player virtual machine to play around with. I also play around with Windows XP on a virtual machine (It was my 2nd operating system I ever used and I also love it).

There's also this very cool website called winworldpc.com where there's a gigantic library of old and beta operating systems and apps to download, which is perfect for people exploring old and cool abandonware stuff on virtual machines.

I have done something even crazy where I did a clean install of Windows XP and then even Windows 98 on a very old and slow Windows Vista laptop that my family did not want anymore. I even played with beta build versions of XP (Whistler) and Vista (longhorn) and Windows 2000. So fun to play with for me. (I'm a computer science major, don't judge me lol)

I've used virtual machines before, but they were for the coding class I took. I used it to use a program called MatLab (aka Matrix Laboratory).

I think the closest I've come to using a virtual machine is toying around with WINE on Linux. I'm actually really curious about VMs... Can they do literally everything an actual installation of Windows can? If so, I'll probably just run a Windows 7 VM inside an installation of Mint when I finally build a decent computer.

1/2 of my servers run on a WIndows 7 VM on a corporate server on the other side of NY.

Vanelan : Only half? =P


Anyway, yeah my whole work environment is virtualized on ESXi. I like it but it's no bhyve.

Lazlo Falconi : Well, its a work in progress. So yea, only half.

Ahh, I got lucky and the hard work was done when I started working at my current job. I just have to not break anything, which has been pretty easy so far!

I currently use VMWare with a Windows 7 installation due to WINE not being able to run the current version of Sony Vegas I use because it is 64-bit, as WINE doesn't support 64-bit as well as it supports 32-bit.

I'm planning on taking a look at QEMU/KVM once I get a new PC, so I can have two GPUs - one of them being passed to the virtual machine directly (they call this GPU Passthrough).

I've used it with two systems, both installed from old installation disks I found laying around: Windows XP and Windows 7. I tried to infect them with viruses (I thought it would be fun, so sue me) but apparently I'm too careful because no matter what I downloaded or what websites I visited, I just couldn't get one.

I use DOSBOX for some things because I like the aesthetic of DOS. I usually play something like Doom on it. The only other time I've actually used a virtual machine would be when I tried running Android in a virtual machine, which almost worked. In the end, I couldn't get it to function correctly and I had to look into an android emulator caled Bluestacks, which I wouldn't recommend. It forces you to try apps to keep using it :/

I use Oracle VM VirtualBox sometimes, mostly for running Windows XP on. I also have copies of Neptune (a home version of 2000 that was ultimately cancelled after Milestone 2) and Longhorn 4074 and 5048. Also, I have ReactOS, an open-source version of Windows based on Server 2003's Win32 API.