right now, the only reason i’m using a virtualized winxp is for:

• outlook (boo.. hiss. boo!)
• tmobile wing activesync
• sysadmin java programs & apps that require internet explorer
• ubuntu’s nm-applet stomps on the resolv.conf [ launchpad ]
• issues configuring nm-applet-openvpn (manual openvpn works though)

most of the windows specific things i can offload to a virtual machine running on my work network. the archive email i’m still trying to figure out though, i’ve never really been good at going back through old email and seperating the cream from the  noise. the noise from my work group’s default alias has been piped into a new ticket system so i can easily take my current outlook psts and crunch them down to a fraction of their size. currently don’t have a lot of meeting requests or other work outlook calendar items, so i can easily just add those manually to google calendar when something comes up. i guess i really don’t need to worry about syncing my personal evolution with my work outlook mail, but i do need to go through and clean up the email from this year and just archive it.

it’s just a lot of different blobs of data… not as difficult to manipulate as i’m making it. i should really stop focusing on how to get it to plan nice in my new environment because some of the data/apps don’t play nice off their native windows systems. syncing the pocketpc shouldn’t take any priority either, i’m definantly switching to an android handset as soon as they are available in Q2 2008.

arg. this is why i’m such a huge supporter of open source software. i rolled up a new virtual machine in virtualbox (4gb image, so it can fit on a dvd) and when windows xp boots for the first time i see this :

according to our records, the number of times you can activate windows with this product key has been eceeded. please enter a a different product key, and then click retry. [ screenshot ]

boooooooooooooooooo! that’s such crap. seriously, i promise i’ll delete my current vmware winxp image when i copy all the stuff over to the new virtualbox winxp image. maybe i should use one of the win23k server licenses i have and virtualize that. i really don’t need a virtual machine on my laptop, but it does help me seperate my work stuff from my real life, i can turn off a vm and be disconnected from work vs being alerted everytime evolution gets new mail off my work exchange server.

virtualbox is really easy to use. gonna go figure out what to do with this worthless 4gb image though. my vmware one is still 9gb, and i’m tired of trying to shave it down. i guess it’s time to hit the outlook pst files and filter out all the extra crap.

arg. i finally got vmware converter to convert my winxp install into a virtualized machine… BUT of course since i have a new ‘vmware’ profile in winxp i keep getting this stupid error.

boo. i tried to be cute and tried safe mode and safe mode + networking. the later doesn’t work AT ALL. wtf. i do not feel like talking to either the automated system or some dude that’s gonna grill me about a perfectly legitimate winxp license.

i think i might have missed a step in the p2v conversion. gotta reboot into the windows partition one last time. woot. hopefully it all works after that.