[plug] Request for Comment - need suggestions and clue-bats

Mon Feb 27 14:36:18 AWST 2017

Hi Onno,

You could run Linux as your host OS, then run a Linux desktop as a VM 
inside the free VMWare player. I think you may need the (paid) VMWare 
Workstation product for snapshots.  Or you could change from VMWare to 
Virtualbox which includes snapshots for free.

Regards,
Steve

On 27/02/17 13:59, Onno Benschop wrote:
> Hi Steve, thank you for your thoughts. How would I run VMware in this 
> scenario?
>
> On 27 February 2017 at 13:54, steve boak <sboak at westnet.com.au 
> <mailto:sboak at westnet.com.au>> wrote:
>
>     Hi Onno
>
>     I think Linux has changed a bit since your early experiences :-)
>
>     I've been running Debian on everything from a Raspberry Pi to
>     several different desktop systems for years and can't remember the
>     last time I had stability issues. There were some early glitches
>     with skylake on my current Asrock B150M Pro4 motherboard, but that
>     was only to do with slow booting and after a firmware update they
>     have 'gone away' now.
>
>     I'd recommend you give Linux a go on new hardware, especially if
>     you can get your hands on a system to do a test run for a while.
>
>     I'm sure others will have recommendations of laptop / desktop
>     hardware that is proven to work.
>
>     Steve
>
>
>     On 27/02/17 13:31, Onno Benschop wrote:
>>     As a Linux user for many years - debian potato anyone? I've had
>>     my fair share of "fun" in relation to making a stable
>>     environment. In 2009 after too many crashes I bit the bullet and
>>     virtualised my Linux experience. I bought a 17" MacBook Pro,
>>     installed VMware Fusion on it and ran my Linux desktop inside
>>     VMware. I still do. Best business decision I ever made.
>>
>>     Based on that track record, I'm reluctant to depreciate my use of
>>     VMware on a Mac, but my last 8 months have been less than
>>     optimal. I purchased a late 2015 27" Retina iMac and loaded it up
>>     with 64Gb of RAM. It's currently running El Capitain.
>>
>>     It crashes an awful lot. OWC have swapped out the RAM and tell me
>>     that there is nothing wrong. Apple told me that they don't
>>     support 64Gb of RAM, OWC says othewise. VMware tells me that the
>>     microcode on the SkyLake processor is out of date, Intel agrees
>>     and Apple waves its hands in the air in the hope I won't notice
>>     that they're not actually doing anything.
>>
>>     I'm loathe to run Windows as my Host OS, and it's unclear if the
>>     boot process would load a microcode update for the processor, so
>>     I could actually see if that made a difference. Similarly, I'm
>>     not keen to go to a Linux Host, since prior to 2009, that
>>     resulted in countless days and weeks of downtime when <insert
>>     random hardware> stopped being supported or wasn't quite
>>     compatible with my hardware and again I'm not sure I'll get a
>>     boot-level microcode update via that mechanism.
>>
>>     I'm at a loss what to do next and I'm looking for suggestions.
>>
>>     Functionality I use daily:
>>
>>       * Linux as my Desktop
>>       * VMware snapshots to test new software / test updates
>>       * VMware machines for different clients
>>
>>     I'm seriously contemplating selling my near new iMac and starting
>>     again, but I'm not at all sure what that might look like. I have
>>     work to do and my current set-up just isn't helping.
>>
>>     Is there something I should investigate, some aspect of what I'm
>>     doing that is in need of review?
>>
>>     From a troubleshooting perspective, I've swapped out RAM until I
>>     was blue in the face. So far I can make Memtest86 pass if I turn
>>     off all but one CPU core. I can reliably make my machine crash by
>>     running OSX Photos and exporting a 1080p slideshow and VMware
>>     randomly crashes with spurious errors - sometimes killing VMware,
>>     sometimes the login session, sometimes the kernel.
>>     -- 
>>     Onno Benschop
>>
>>     ()/)/)()        ..ASCII for Onno..
>>     |>>?            ..EBCDIC for Onno..
>>     --- -. -. ---   ..Morse for Onno..
>>
>>     If you need to know: "What computer should I buy?"
>>     http://goo.gl/spsb66
>>
>>     ITmaze   -   ABN: 56 178 057 063   -  ph: 04 1219 8888   -
>>     onno at itmaze.com.au <mailto:onno at itmaze.com.au>
>>
>>
>>     _______________________________________________
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>>     PLUG Membership:http://www.plug.org.au/membership <http://www.plug.org.au/membership>
>
>     -- 
>     Steve Boak, VK6HSB,0411 255 789 <tel:0411%20255%20789>, P.O. Box 240, Nannup, WA 6275
>
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>
> -- 
> Onno Benschop ()/)/)()        ..ASCII for Onno.. |>>?            
> ..EBCDIC for Onno.. --- -. -. ---   ..Morse for Onno.. If you need to 
> know: "What computer should I buy?" http://goo.gl/spsb66
> ITmaze   -   ABN: 56 178 057 063   -  ph: 04 1219 8888   - 
> onno at itmaze.com.au <mailto:onno at itmaze.com.au>
>
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