After installing Windows Vista on Ubuntu using VMware, one of the problems that you’re likely to face is that your virtual machine has completely no access to your host folder. This means you cannot view/edit your favorite photos (or any other files) in your Vista VM. Come to think of it, what is the use of installing a VM if you can’t access your local hard disk where all your documents are kept?

Luckily, there are several solutions to this.

For anyone who is keen to migrate to Linux platform, but can’t live without Windows application, then Wine can be a great solution for you.

What is WINE?

WINE stands for Wine Is Not Emulator. Here is what it is about:

“Think of Wine as a compatibility layer for running Windows programs. Wine does not require Microsoft Windows, as it is a completely free alternative implementation of the Windows API consisting of 100% non-Microsoft code, however Wine can optionally use native Windows DLLs if they are available. Wine provides both a development toolkit for porting Windows source code to Unix as well as a program loader, allowing many unmodified Windows programs to run on x86-based Unixes, including Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, and Solaris.”

Doing the same thing over and over again is a boring chore. Windows and Mac understand that, that why they have the automation program built into their OS. Windows XP & Vista have a task scheduler that allow you to create and automate simple task. Unknown to many, Mac OS X iCal alarm function can also be used to schedule and automate task.

In Ubuntu (or basically Linux), task automation used to involve writing shell scripts and setting cron job, and this is not an easy thing for a new user to do. Luckily, there is the Gnome-schedule that come with a simple graphical interface and makes task scheduling a breeze.

Be it Windows, Mac or Linux, it is always a wise choice to backup your data. You never know when your hardware is going to fail and when that happens, you know that all your data is safe and there is a backup copy for you to fall back on.

In Ubuntu, it is surprisingly easy to backup your data. Gone are the days that require you to remember all the text line commands to type in the command prompt. With sBackup, you can easily backup your data with few clicks of your mouse. let me show you how.

For Ubuntu Gutsy users who find that they can’t live without Windows, or just want to give Vista a try, here’s your savior: VMware Server.

Vmware Server is a free to download virtual machine tool that allows you to install the various type of operating systems under a virtual environment.

Before you attempt to install Windows Vista, please make sure that your computer has at least 1GB of RAM (preferably 2GB), 16GB of hard disk space and a genuine Vista CD.

Here are the steps to install Windows Vista in Ubuntu using Vmware Server.

For people who are new to Linux and Ubuntu, you might be overwhelmed by the huge library of applications available to you. Below is my 10 favorite applications. Hope it is useful to you.

Gaming in Linux is always a big issue. Many gamers are not willing to migrate to Linux (though they are not happy with Windows) because they are worried about the lack of support for gaming. This is really a big myth, since there are really plenty of great games in Linux.

In case you are wondering what choices of game you have in Linux (Ubuntu), here are my top 10 list.