New Toy
New laptop for work: MBP 15.4/2.6/16GB/1TBFlash. First time I ever went the Apple route. I did so as I figured with those specs, I could run multiple operating systems simultaneously. So far, so good. I’m using VirtualBox to do so.
Notes:
First, Mac OS X 10.9. My biggest problem with previous versions of this operating system is that they always appeared to me to be fairly hostile to installing open source scripting languages and tools. For example, each time I updated my Rails book, I would update the instructions on how to install the necessary software. This now appears to be a thing of the past. In fact, the only problem I’ve encountered so far is with mod_suexec. That problem looks easy to address, and if it isn’t addressed by the team managing the brew recipe, I’ll simply compile the suexec bin myself.
Overall, much improved. This is also my first experience with Apple’s trackpad; and I must say I’m a fan.
Next up, Ubuntu 14.04. Installation was straightforward. One only needs to be mindful to install dkms. Enabling 3D acceleration is also worthwhile, but doesn’t quite get you to native graphics speeds on lesser hardware. The end result is fully functional, though it is worth while to do most web browsing on the host operating system.
Then Windows 8.1. This was by far the easiest as Microsoft provides time bombed VMs which you can easily import and use for up to 90 days. When the 90 days are up, you can import again and start over. I’ve now done this with both Ubuntu and Mac hosts.
Finally, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5. There were a few more steps to get this running, and even after doing so the result wasn’t fully functional in that it would not use the full display even after installing guest additions. The solution ended up being to delete (or simply move elsewhere) the following files in the /etc/X11 directory: xorg.conf xorg.conf.d xorg.conf-vm. I use this VM to access the IBM VPN and to run Lotus Notes.