Window$ to Linux maybe easier than we think - "running Window$ apps seamlessley via Virtualbox"

Fairfax

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Dec 23, 2009, 6:56:06 AM12/23/09

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Things may have just gotten a bit easier, if this article is to be
believed (and I hope it is):
http://lifehacker.com/367714/run-windows-apps-seamlessly-inside-linux

Here's an excerpt from the beginning of the article:

"

2009-12-23 06:55:22
(http://lifehacker.com/367714/run-windows-apps-seamlessly-inside-linux)

You love working inside your Linux desktop, but at the most
inconvenient times you've got to reboot into Windows?whether to open a
tricky Office file, try out a Windows application, or even just play a
quick game. However, with some free tools and a Windows installation
disk, you can have Windows apps running right on your Linux desktop
and sharing the same desktop files. It's relatively painless, it takes
only a little bit longer than a Windows XP install, and it works just
like virtualizing Windows on a Mac with Parallels Coherence?except
it's free. Here's how to set up Windows inside VirtualBox, and then
get Windows apps running seamlessly inside your desktop.

Before getting started, make sure you have enough space on a hard
drive for a Windows XP installation (meaning at least 5 GB) and enough
memory to make two systems worthwhile.You can follow most of these
steps if you want to try running Vista inside Linux, but your mileage
might vary, of course (and check out this tip on making Vista's
networking work).

If you're curious what the end result might look like, here's a
screenshot from my quick installation. I would've loved to have gotten
iTunes running, but I didn't have time to wait for all the
post-XP-installation patches/upgrades to install to show you.
...
"

REM

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Dec 23, 2009, 7:14:02 PM12/23/09

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> Fairfax <Spa...@NoJunkMail.org> wrote:

>Things may have just gotten a bit easier, if this article is to be
>believed (and I hope it is):
>http://lifehacker.com/367714/run-windows-apps-seamlessly-inside-linux

Very nice!!

If there was a way to take an updated XP image file with everything
installed and ready to go and to run XP by loading from that image it
would be bulletproof from malware manifestations. That is, like
running XP in a sandbox.

The lab at school was setup like that. You log on as root or Admin.
Regardless of what any user does a simple reboot fixes it by loading
the partition from an image file.

Dave

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Dec 23, 2009, 10:33:44 PM12/23/09

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With VirtualBox,like they're doing in the LifeHacker article, it's easy
to setup an XP install the way you want it,then use the "Snapshot"
feature in VirtualBox.After you have the snapshot,you can
install,change,tweak,break,infect,infest,etc all you want and all you
have to do is revert to the Snapshot state and bingo,good as new.

Dave

--
Registered Linux user # 444770

mike

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Dec 23, 2009, 11:32:24 PM12/23/09

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Seems like a viable option would be a write-protected hibernation file
and moving around some pointers so a reboot turned into a resume from
hibernation. Should be trivial to do if you understood how hibernation
and the boot process worked.
Anything like that available?