<div dir="ltr"><div>The ability to run 3D programs in a VM and 'pass out' the 3D windows successfully is improving every day in virtualisation. If im not mistaken SPICE uses VirtualGL to do this, and VirtualGL was even stripped and used or copied for Microsofts RemoteFX / 3D + RDP solution, now shipped with most MS Server solutions.<br>
<br></div>Im working on a startup to amalgamate current CAD software for various industries into browser based VMs on an intermediary cloud platform, probably mostly windows but quite a lot of linux too, accessible by HTML5 and ajax. So experimenting with these protocols and cloud providers is quite fun...<br>
</div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 13 December 2013 14:13, Jason Nicholls <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jason@mindsocket.com.au" target="_blank">jason@mindsocket.com.au</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">I only ever let my Windows run in VMs ;)<br>
<div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><br>
On Fri, Dec 13, 2013 at 12:53 PM, Brad Campbell <<a href="mailto:brad@fnarfbargle.com">brad@fnarfbargle.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> So I've been doing a heap of 3D work recently. I achieve this using the<br>
> windows CAD program in a VM and display it over the network with Spice<br>
> (which rocks). I've been struggling with apparent UI latency and not having<br>
> ever used, nor seen this program on the bare metal I thought it might be a<br>
> VM artifact, so I shrunk my home partition and made room for Windows on the<br>
> disk.<br>
><br>
> It's been a *long* time since I've used windows outside a VM, so I booted<br>
> the install CD and told it where to put itself. Away it went.<br>
> What the installer does not actually tell you is it will put Windows<br>
> wherever you tell it to, however it will also install the bootloader in the<br>
> first partition it comes across that is marked active in the MBR. Yay, so<br>
> Windows installed and simultaneously wiped my root partition.<br>
><br>
> I painstakingly restored everything from backups and then found of course<br>
> windows would not boot because I stomped it's bootloader, so booted Windows<br>
> into rescue mode and used the old /fixboot to re-install the bootloader. Of<br>
> course it dutifully installed it (you see where this is going?) on the first<br>
> partition that was marked active and thus stomped my root *again*.<br>
><br>
> *grumble*. For future reference, create your partition for windows *and*<br>
> mark it active before you boot the Windows CD, then swap it back to allow<br>
> grub to chain to the windows partition on the rare occasion you want it.<br>
><br>
> How can such a defective POS be so popular ?!?<br>
><br>
> Anyway, after a second root restore and much fiddling I got it working,<br>
> installed the CAD software on the Windows bare metal and found out it's no<br>
> faster. So from a real usability standpoint for *complex* and very hungry<br>
> windows software a VM is now a very practical and competitive solution. The<br>
> only thing the bare metal brought me was nicer 3D textures using the fruit<br>
> on the graphics card, but from a day-to-day usability perspective the VM is<br>
> just as good (it's actually better as my desktop has 16G and a 3.6G proc<br>
> while the VM box has 32G and is overclocked to 4.7G).<br>
><br>
> Hooray for KVM. Boo for Windows.<br>
><br>
> _______________________________________________<br>
> PLUG discussion list: <a href="mailto:plug@plug.org.au">plug@plug.org.au</a><br>
> <a href="http://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug" target="_blank">http://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug</a><br>
> Committee e-mail: <a href="mailto:committee@plug.org.au">committee@plug.org.au</a><br>
> PLUG Membership: <a href="http://www.plug.org.au/membership" target="_blank">http://www.plug.org.au/membership</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
</div></div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">--<br>
Jason Nicholls<br>
<a href="mailto:jason@mindsocket.com.au">jason@mindsocket.com.au</a><br>
0430 314 857<br>
</font></span><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5">_______________________________________________<br>
PLUG discussion list: <a href="mailto:plug@plug.org.au">plug@plug.org.au</a><br>
<a href="http://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug" target="_blank">http://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug</a><br>
Committee e-mail: <a href="mailto:committee@plug.org.au">committee@plug.org.au</a><br>
PLUG Membership: <a href="http://www.plug.org.au/membership" target="_blank">http://www.plug.org.au/membership</a><br>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br></div>