- Dueling Virtualization Tools
- Ease of Installation
- Ease of DSL Installation
- Windows XP Home Installation
- Other Abilities and Features
- Final Judgment
Windows XP Home Installation
VMware really rocked with this one. The installation was quick and efficient, and the response time only got better once the VMware Tools were loaded. Virtual PC was agonizingly slow when the instance was set to 128MB of virtualized RAM, the default setting. I think that one setting is a large mistake. Even with 128MB of physical RAM, installing XP Home would be s-l-o-w. So after abending the installation, I reset the virtual machine to use 256MB RAM, per the VMware settings.
After this one change, installation was much, much snappier and only got better once the Additions for Windows, DOS, and OS/2 were installed.
Both products run a mean, responsive Windows XP Home. One runs a mean, responsive suite of Windows and DSL instances. I wish both could, but I found it challenging to do with VMware what I can do simply and easily with Virtual PC. Sure, maybe I could try to install DSL with one of the other Linux templates. Maybe I could try the Windows templates to get my more generic IDE drive. Overall, I just don't think it needs to be this difficult, and it isn't with Virtual PC.