Need to setup linux for a WinXP VM, help please!

[MikeTheLion]

Ok so, my father need to use a win xp machine from time to time because of work, but i screwed up because i wanted to give him a more powerful PC (he had a core duo, now have a pentium g3258).

Since there is no way that i go down the rabbit hole of trying to make win xp work on a SSD and realitvely modern CPU, for my own mental sanity, i think a VM is my best bet. problem is: i'm a massive linux noob, never used a VM and don't know wich distro is better.

 

i know that probably every distro can run a VM but if gamer os exist then probably, somewere, there is a distro optimized to run VMs... can someone help me out please?

[Sauron]

4 minutes ago, MikeTheLion said:

i know that probably every distro can run a VM but if gamer os exist then probably, somewere, there is a distro optimized to run VMs...

There are dedicated hypervisors but they're definitely no simpler to use than just trying to install xp on the hardware... for your use case any system running virtualbox is probably fine.

[MikeTheLion]

25 minutes ago, Sauron said:

There are dedicated hypervisors but they're definitely no simpler to use than just trying to install xp on the hardware... for your use case any system running virtualbox is probably fine.

so ubuntu is fine? can i make the VM start automatically when i log in?

[Sauron]

2 minutes ago, MikeTheLion said:

so ubuntu is fine? can i make the VM start automatically when i log in?

Sure, that's possible. https://www.paulligocki.com/make-virtual-box-vm-autostart/

[jaslion]

I mean running xp on a ssd and the pentium you have is honestly pretty darn easy. The thing that is bad for ssds in xp is the lack of trim and it wanting to defragment the drive but it's so easy to just turn defragmentation off permanently with a registery tweak that it isn't a worry. The lack of trim yeah the drive will last a little less long but I doubt a 30$ 120gb ssd that needs to be replaced after 5 years or so is going to be a major hit.

 

Also no need to use linux here if you want to go vm. Windows 10 is fine for this too. Xp machines only need a single core anyway since basically all software from the xp times is mainly single core focused.

[Alexeygridnev1993]

30 minutes ago, jaslion said:

I mean running xp on a ssd and the pentium you have is honestly pretty darn easy. The thing that is bad for ssds in xp is the lack of trim and it wanting to defragment the drive but it's so easy to just turn defragmentation off permanently with a registery tweak that it isn't a worry. The lack of trim yeah the drive will last a little less long but I doubt a 30$ 120gb ssd that needs to be replaced after 5 years or so is going to be a major hit.

 

Also no need to use linux here if you want to go vm. Windows 10 is fine for this too. Xp machines only need a single core anyway since basically all software from the xp times is mainly single core focused.

In my opinion, setting up a VM on a weak dual-core machine on Windows 10 is insanity, given how resource-heavy Windows 10 is on its own. One would be much better off with something like Lubuntu with your favourite VM software installed and set to autostart.

[jaslion]

5 minutes ago, Alexeygridnev1993 said:

In my opinion, setting up a VM on a weak dual-core machine on Windows 10 is insanity, given how resource-heavy Windows 10 is on its own. One would be much better off with something like Lubuntu with your favourite VM software installed and set to autostart.

Idle 10 + a xp vm is barely a load. Sure linux is better but I gave it as just an option since they have never used linux before.

[BondiBlue]

6 hours ago, Alexeygridnev1993 said:

In my opinion, setting up a VM on a weak dual-core machine on Windows 10 is insanity, given how resource-heavy Windows 10 is on its own. One would be much better off with something like Lubuntu with your favourite VM software installed and set to autostart.

A few years ago I had a need to run several Windows XP and Server 2003 VMs at once. I did it all on a Core 2 Duo machine running Windows 10, and I didn't have any issues.