Dual boot? Wine? VM ware? What is my best option for running Windows?

[Dreamofgilgamesh]

Dear Group, i want to install XP Home solely for running Skype because PCLinux doesn't support my webcam and XP does.

So, what is my best choice.  I have a slave disk on my PC with a NTFS partition big enough to hold XP, but would that work, could i install XP to a slave drive partition?  Or would i be better to explore other options.  I've heard some of you chaps talking about "WINE"  Could i install that and run XP within it?

I could do with updating my PCLinux system so would i be best to wipe the machine, install XP then shrink the partition and than install PCLinux?

What are my options chaps?

Many thanks

[exwintech]

Dreamofgilgamesh - If you needed to use Windows for heavy-duty apps, such as video editing/conversion, a hard-drive install would be best. But for lighter duties apps - particularly on Internet - an XP install in Virtual-Box should work very well.

You can now install Oracle's V-Box via the "Getvirtualbox" in Synaptic. This works very easily and well. It has the 'Guest Additions', which used to be separate, included. You create a "connection" directory in Linux /home - then configure the link easily from V-Box - to transfer material between the Guest System - say, your XP - and the Host System, your Linux.

Using Internet from XP in V-Box is no problem - it just picks it up immediately. Use I.E. once to download Firefox for Windows, install FF, and make it 'priority'. I run things like 'Screamer' Internet Radio and Pidgin Messaging, which work as soon as installed - so your Windows Internet app should be no problem...

Regards, Dave.

[Old-Polack]

Dreamofgilgamesh:

A VBox VM with XP is an excellent choice, provided you have the hardware to support it. Most importantly, enough RAM to support running the host OS as well as the VM. It would be a great help if you could provide the machine's hardware specs.

[Just17]

What is 'best' only you can decide.

You can install XP on a separate drive .....  it does not matter if it is 'slave' .....  might be a good idea to have that drive the only one connected when doing so, to avoid any difficulties.

You can then re-attach the PCLOS drive and set the PCLOS drive as the boot drive in BIOS.

You can then arrange to boot PCLOS or XP from the PCLOS boot menu.

***

If it would be convenient to have XP available while running PCLOS then VBox virtual machine is great .......  but you need sufficient hardware resources to be able to run both OSs at the same time.
So you PC specs are needed to get an opinion on whether that is viable for you or not.

***

Dear Group, i want to install XP Home solely for running Skype because PCLinux doesn't support my webcam and XP does.

If you cannot get the webcam working it might be easier to get a replacement 'cheapie' .....  maybe €10 to €20 ....  I got one from Lidl or Aldi don't recall which .....

[Dreamofgilgamesh]

Thank you all very much for your help, it's certainly given me something to be going on with.

[david1958]

just to put in another option on the webcam, some work and some do not. He is right the cheaper cams usually work. I found mine at radio shack for 17.00 us dollars and it works just fine in Linux PcMonty. The one i got for 17.00 is a 1.3 megapixel "GigaWare" web cam with mic.  model 25-1178

david1958