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I mean not performance wise, or hardware wise. Any good config PC will run them on VMs.

I mean functionality wise n experience wise.

Is one able to install and run Ubuntu linux applications just like normally in VMs as they would work in a separate boot installed ubuntu?

And how can one install and run linux apps in ubuntu on VMs ?

I mean like Compiz, Emerald, (linux versions of) - Utorrent, VLC, etc..etc.. on VM based Ubuntu.

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    Please make only one question per question. BTW, yes you can install software the same way. Mar 6, 2013 at 8:07

2 Answers 2

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As running the OS in a virtual machine is possible to all extent this does not hold true for hardware integration. The drawbacks depend on the virtualization software you will be using but pe prepared to have issues when accessing

  • hardware graphical acceleration (not all features of your graphic card will be exposed to the VM).
  • sound devices (partly integrated or emulated but still not all features may work as expected).
  • unusual proprietary hardware (especially when they come as a PCI card).
  • USB devices (USB 3.0 acess may not be available).
  • Application that need fast hard drive access (only a virtual disc is provided).

In practise you will probably not notice much of these drawback other than a drop in performance because most hardware will be accessible. But be prepared that not all and every hardware you may use on your host will also operate the same on the guest system.

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There are several differences.

First you speak of functionality and experience. The latter is really hard to see if you don't want performance to play a part, so I'm going to file that as "subjective". But the former has some points.

Overall you can do a lot, but the biggest issue you have is that you are not running a real machine per definition, and so the hardware support can be limited, or at least different. This might have the effect that your videocard isn't support to it's fullest. The effect of that might be big (no support for 3d for instance) or a bit less (more experience/performace).

The same thing goes for connections like USB. You connect your phone to your host computer. It's not a given you will be able to connect to it for development for instance on your guest (the VM). It could be, there are ways do pass on USB information, and for common things like controllers this will be easy. But the more obscure your hardware or goal, the harder it will be to make the VM react as if the hardware was connected directly.

So there is no global problem in functionality, but there can be many specific ones.

And don't forget performance, this can be real killer, but doesn't have to be.

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