On Wed, 16 Sep 2009 at 12:01 -0000, Robert G. Brown wrote: > XPPro will run forever on the virtualized hardware interface as long > as I can get linux to boot and run devices on the toplevel system. > If I change machines, my XPPro VM can go with me without all of the > tedious crap from Windows Update and phone calls to Windows service > people that don't know what you're talking about or what to do about > it once they do.
Are you sure about this? We have some interest in being able to archive complete installations for future use (e.g. +5-10 years). I'm skeptical of the existing trend of virtualization to handle all of the needs for product activation or other software licensing schemes. The following is speculation not facts. If you move an existing VM within the same virtualization and cpu technology you may be able to get away without reactivation or obtaining a new license key. MAC addresses can be set in several virtual environment which can help in some cases. However, a lot of other things can impact product activation and licensing checks. Different virtual environments provide different emulated devices. Emulated disk serial numbers, BIOS versions, cpu family, cpu stepping, processor flags and other unknown things may be included in the product activation or licensing checks. It may be that some of the processor emulation technologies can provide this functionality. qemu can emulate a number of hardware systems but again only in specific configurations which may differ from a real world licensed configuration. Stuart _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org sponsored by Penguin Computing To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
