How best to test programs on multiple OS's

General
1

Hi Everyone,

What is the best way to run multiple OS’s on one machine? I have created programs which work on the big 3 operating systems (Windows, Mac, and Linux), and have heard many possible options on the forums. Which is the best and most reliable?

Hardware: It appears that the best/easiest hardware for compatibility is my Mac Mini (i7). Getting drivers for the Mac OS working on other computer systems seems to be difficult. Thoughts?

OS software:
There appears to be many types of software to switch between OS’s, and each with different levels of complexity. What is stable software that exists and the positive and negative aspects?

Possible Software Options:

  1. Bootcamp - I know that two Operating Systems can be added, as Windows and Maverick are running at the moment. Can Bootcamp support 3 OS’s? Using Bootcamp seems to be a good option, as resource-hungry applications seem to work well. The only minor negative aspect is that a reboot is required to enter the operating system.

  2. VMWare seems to be a popular program, and I have very little exposure to it. Is this a good option from those who use it daily?

  3. Parallels - Seems to be a stable program, but runs the OS’s in parallel. For resource hungry applications, this seems to not be a good option.

There are many other options for Virtual Machines, and what is the best buy for the dollar? This will be mainly be personal use to verify and troubleshoot my Xojo programs, and play the occasional game.

Thanks for your helpful thoughts!

2

I would like help with this too. I have developing a program for about a year with xojo/real studio now. And I have not once tested my app on Mac or Linux. Tbh I don’t have a Mac though.

3

PC and VMWare 10. I currently run Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 7 32-bit, Windows 7 64-bit, Windows 8.1, Montain lion, Mavericks and Linux Mint on a I7 870 (16GB ram, ATI Radeon HD 5900 series). All running smooth as silk.

4

I am using Virtualbox for my testing on various window setup which i got from http://www.modern.ie/en-us/virtualization-tools

5

Check out the Remote Debugging and Virtual Machines blog post I did last week:

http://www.xojo.com/blog/en/2013/12/remote-debugging-and-virtual-machines.php

6

If you have an Intel PC, you can check Virtualbox, which allows running Mac OS X. As for linux, most distributions come now as live DVD which let you run Linux without installing it.

7

Unless you’re doing specific hardware testing this is a great option
Parallels is an excellent choice
One site did a side by side & found ■■■ to be the fastest

I have an MBP and regularly run up to 3 VM’s in it at a time with out any issues.

8

Thanks for the helpful comments.

Now is the time for playing :slight_smile: