securitybreach Posted July 4, 2023 Share Posted July 4, 2023 13 hours ago, crp said: no one else here run multiple versions of DOS on the same PC back in the 80's? I dual booted Windows 2000 with Windows 98 SE back in the day so yeah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted July 5, 2023 Author Share Posted July 5, 2023 18 hours ago, Hedon James said: But if a VM isn't what you want "Why on earth would I want to mess around with a VM. By the time I have figured out how to set up and run one I could have a real install set up and running in far less time." My reasoning, Point one is above With a Arch install I have no extra worries or learning to do in the future. I already run Arch so update issues will already be sorted meaning I can update the new install with no extra thought or worries. If any VM stuff runs into update issues I would have to spend time and effort tracking them down, why bother with the hassle. The test Arch would only have programs related to the testing so no update issues will occur from other programs I have on my main os. Not that I get that many problems but odd ones do occur so why not avoid them. Chances of operator error will be less. Using the test Arch I will be focused on the testing. Turn it on , concentrate. Turn it of return to normal shambolic thought process. Running in a VM I would be tempted to do something else in between testing which would lead to gremlins. Test Arch would be smaller in size and much quicker to backup/clone. Run , fiddle around , backup , switch off. I doubt I would keep up that regime on my main Arch with a VM. So basically I do not want to do any extra research etc which a VM would need. I want a bombproof sandboxed like environment for tests. I want to be forced to go into and out of test mode. I want my tests to be carried out in a 100 % real life situation. On 7/4/2023 at 1:57 AM, V.T. Eric Layton said: Hey... have I told you folks that I love you lately? Nope. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted July 5, 2023 Author Share Posted July 5, 2023 20 hours ago, Hedon James said: I remembered you were a rEFInd guy, and that's something I plan to steal from you on my next installation! This may help https://forums.scotsnewsletter.com/index.php?/topic/97687-ventoy-one-usb-to-rule-them-all/&do=findComment&comment=481910 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa4chq Posted July 5, 2023 Share Posted July 5, 2023 (edited) 15 hours ago, crp said: no one else here run multiple versions of DOS on the same PC back in the 80's? I had an old Toshiba Satellite laptop that I ran DR Dos and BasicLinux on. I didn't have a clue about what any of it was or what I was doing...I just wanted to see if I could do it. Dr Dos was cool because I used Arachne web browser. At first, I thought it was an OS, but my pc/linux buddies explained to me that it wasn't...lol. When the same buddies started talking about Linux, I installed BasicLinux and dual booted. BL was great because I could go online with Links or Lynx or even Netscape Navigator. Fast forward to 2023 and I still don't know what any of this is or what I'm doing, but I'm missing me some Arachne. I can run Arachne in DosBox but cannot get it to browse the internet. Back in the day of dial-up, it worked great. Here is another Arachne site. Edited July 5, 2023 by wa4chq 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted July 5, 2023 Share Posted July 5, 2023 Virtual computing is a lot like virtual sex... it's not quite the "real" thing. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted July 5, 2023 Share Posted July 5, 2023 Back in my distro farming days I had an old Dell Optiplex GX270 system which I used as a testbed and chainloaded several distros at a time. I got interested in VMs as an alternative - particularly on Windows systems where I didn't want to dual boot Linux and Windows. I found that you could have several VMs on your system just like chainloading and it was a lot easier to install them once you got familiar with virtualization. That said I soon acquired a bunch of old laptops plus my interest in distro farming went away. I had enough junkers to install Arch, Debian and Mint. I didn't feel like maintaining more than that. Also I don't really need to run Linux on a Windows system. So I have given up on VMs for now. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhbell Posted July 18, 2023 Share Posted July 18, 2023 Well after following this topic for awhile I decided to throw in my 02 cents worth. I have Icy Docks in all of my computers except the laptops. I have 2 Icy docks in my main computer. One that holds 4 SSD's and one that Holds 2 SSD's and 1 Hard drive. There is a on and off switch on each dock for each ssd. I can change out a ssd in seconds if I need too. Like Vt I've had several Distros installed on one SSD. I use GPT partitioning with all Primary partitions. No extended partitions for me. All Distros that I install have a Root, Swap and Home partitions. I use grub to boot any of them except Arch derivatives which require there own grub to boot. I can swap my SSD's around and put them in any position. My firmware (Bios) is ASUS EFI so I can switch SSD's that have a ARCH derovative on it and am able to boot it as each SSD has it's own EFI partition. I've done this for several years now and it works for me. I install any beta or Distro that I want to test on a ssd NO vm FOR ME. Mel 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted July 21, 2023 Author Share Posted July 21, 2023 On 7/18/2023 at 10:13 PM, mhbell said: Well after following this topic for awhile I decided to throw in my 02 cents worth. I have Icy Docks in all of my computers except the laptops. I have 2 Icy docks in my main computer. One that holds 4 SSD's and one that Holds 2 SSD's and 1 Hard drive. There is a on and off switch on each dock for each ssd. I can change out a ssd in seconds if I need too. Like Vt I've had several Distros installed on one SSD. I use GPT partitioning with all Primary partitions. No extended partitions for me. All Distros that I install have a Root, Swap and Home partitions. I use grub to boot any of them except Arch derivatives which require there own grub to boot. I can swap my SSD's around and put them in any position. My firmware (Bios) is ASUS EFI so I can switch SSD's that have a ARCH derovative on it and am able to boot it as each SSD has it's own EFI partition. I've done this for several years now and it works for me. I install any beta or Distro that I want to test on a ssd NO vm FOR ME. Mel Yes that GPT partitioning certainly makes life easier if you want top run several distros on the same drive. I have a Icy Dock that takes two drives each with their own on/off button, they are great for backups and storage. The drive I intend to use is an internal drive as it became spare due to reorganising. Now that I think back my multi booting way back was complicated by the "only 4 Primary partition rule" with the old BIOS system. Thanks for all the input folks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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