Which Linux Distro For Running VMs

[hein123]

Hi, my laptop running a bit slow and starting to test Linux.

What I want to do is use Linux as my main operating system as its not as resource hungry as windows 7 and then just run Virtual maschines (VMWare) to program different PLCs.

My question is which distro would be the best for this and if there is any other advice I might need.

Currently testing Linux Mint 17.3.

Thanks

 

[thebuj]

Mint is fine if speed is an issue, its one of the better choices. It's derived from Ubuntu which is a better choice for newcomers to Linux.

Linux is Linux and distros are a matter of taste really, at its core, it will perform the same.

The difference will be the GUI of course and how you get your packages but other than that, its so customisable that you can run other GUI's and package installers on other distros anyways...

But.... I personally think that the added complexity of Linux will bite you in the a$$ when you are going to need to meet a deadline or simply wont work when it's just not the time(eg. with a client).

Linux works marvelously when it's running fine, but when you start having problems, be prepared to spend hours and days on forums, typing terminal commands, trying to get that older version driver not to break dependencies...

IMHO, Linux is the better choice for setup and forget applications. You need a server, Linux. You need a hardware firewall, Linux and the list goes on and on...

But for a work desktop, where you need com ports, Ethernet and USB working with different obscure drivers.... You are going top spend LOTS of time on the terminal screen and probably will never get it to work properly at some point.

If your laptop is slow, I suggest you start by replacing your hard drive with a solid state drive (SSD) , then max that ram out with the fastest ram it can accommodate.

If your laptop is slow, it is probably because it has low ram and running VM's will make it slow no matter what OS you are running.

Low ram means swapping will occur and if you are not on an SSD, things will cripple and time out.

If you are running VM's you will need a minimum of 8 gigs of ram if you want to keep decent speeds.

The minutes lost waiting in windows because your laptop is slow will not compare to the hours and days lost trying to make Linux work.

IMHO if you want to start playing around Linux, install it at home and use it as your desktop.

Or you could keep Windows and install distro's you want to test out as VM's.

But if you really want to go for a Linux ride install Linux as your main OS, and run different Linux VM's to test out.

But testing out Linux on your work computer is not a wise decision IMHO.

Oh, and if you find windows resource hungry, start by disabling aero themes. Then you can search the web, there are tons of sites that explains how to disable services that eat up RAM and CPU time.

 

[JesperMP]

You need a multicore CPU in the laptop, 4 cores or better.
Then assign as many cores as possible to the VM. I have 4 core CPU and have assigned 3 cores to VM.

 

[hein123]

I have mint installed and would play around connecting to different VMs.

The laptop would become a work laptop in a month so it would give me some time to play around.

My biggest problem was TIA Portal V13 was massively resource hungry and running it with through VM was issue

Thanks For the advice

 

[mk42]

I definitely agree with the advice to make sure you are using an SSD.

As for which distro to use... I suspect that for the most part they'll be about the same. The trick will be to make sure you turn off all the bells and whistles in the window manager. Shadow, 3D effects, transparancy, stuff like that can really slow down a PC.

 

[thebuj]

Here are the recommended specs for your software

So get that RAM flowing!

Get quality ram, not the budget one. The most your laptop can support, with the fastest speed your laptop can support, with the lowest latency you can find.

Maxing out ram isn't too expensive these days. If you want to go that road PM me, i`ll help you figure out what you need.

Also, throwing cores at it might not get the results wanted, as it will deprive your host OS of CPU cycles. Most programming software isn't multi-threaded and adding more cores won't help but you can test that.

The best way to test this is to open your task manager at the performance tab. That way you can see the combined CPU usage, you can also see it in the notification area when your task manager is open. Then make the software do its most intensive work, like compiling. If it caps at 25% CPU usage on compiling, you know your are only using one core on a quad core system. So you can safely lower your cores to 2, that way the software can cap one core while compiling and the guest OS still has CPU cycles for its own. I usually never allocate more than 2 cores to a guest OS.

 

[hein123]

thanks for the info,

does anybody use Macbooks to program PLCs using VMs?
I am asking because soon I would need to replace my laptop and Macbook would be a dream replacement.
Else what other laptop would be ideal? I like to buy laptops every 5 years so specs must be good

 

[ASF]

I use a MacBook Pro to program everything. Works brilliantly for me - fast, light, incredible battery life, and once you're running a VM what does it matter what's behind it? Never had an issue.

FYI I use VMWare Fusion. Very stable and reliable in my experience.

[edit] the one drawback I should probably mention is the disdainful looks you get from every other programmer you meet. But then that tends to evaporate once you have two VM's started up and online with two different PLC's before their host has even finished booting

 

[dmroeder]

I personally wouldn't hesitate to run Linux as a host if it were allowed at my work. I think some of the doubts are a little overstated. Having a top of the line machine isn't really necessary from my experience. It will perform just fine with 8 gigs of RAM with any type/speed. I'd bet that the only way you'd notice any different between "slow" and "fast" RAM is in benchmarks, not real life.

I have a machine that has ran Linux for years. Things don't suddenly go wrong unless you are tinkering with the nuts and bolts, otherwise it just works for me. I've never and it just stop working. Generally the only time I've broken things is when updating the kernel (no reason to really need to), or messing with graphics drivers. And to be fair, it can be a pain to fix if you aren't familiar.

And even if you goof something up and it won't run, as long as you have a backup of your VM, you can easily reinstall Linux and dump you VM back on it. No big deal. If you aren't doing silly things as root, it will run great. And when you do need to do things as root, just pay attention to what you are doing and you'll be fine.

With some of the quality of the automation software that I use, I'm more worried about my VM taking a dump than the host OS. When talking about deadlines and all that, I've lost more time due to having to reinstall or debug my "favorite" automation software than anything else.

That's my opinion, you mileage may vary....

edit: And to actually answer the post, I prefer Mint KDE Edition.