Do you think the MacBook could run at least a single VM, say with Linux?

[Bigeric23]

Responding to a thread today, I had a thought regarding the new MacBook and VMs (virtual machines). So . . . I would like to get your thoughts about this use case.

Do you think the MacBook could run at least a single VM, say with Linux?

I'm aware it might not be as smooth and fast as running on my MacBook pro, but in a pinch, would it suffice? Or would the performance be so abysmal as to be prohibitive?

Let me know what you think.

 

[anon(4698833)]

It has better than the minimum specs to run any of the popular OS's using things like Parallels and the like...so to answer your question, yes, it could run Linux just fine.

All that said, why run a VM setup when you can run it via bootcamp...then any user on the machine has access to the alternate OS vs. just a singular user like you have using a VM setup. Not only that, but using a VM setup, you'll be sharing the M processors power between OS X and whichever OS you choose, which will degrade performance.

 

[Eumaeus]

It can. I do it all the time. VirtualBox and Ubuntu, via Vagrant. Works great.

 

[imwjl]

It has better than the minimum specs to run any of the popular OS's using things like Parallels and the like...so to answer your question, yes, it could run Linux just fine.

All that said, why run a VM setup when you can run it via bootcamp...then any user on the machine has access to the alternate OS vs. just a singular user like you have using a VM setup. Not only that, but using a VM setup, you'll be sharing the M processors power between OS X and whichever OS you choose, which will degrade performance.

Both OS running at same time offers a lot for some - especially IT pros. I use UNIX style utilities and Mac apps I like at same time a Windows VM runs Windows only software like VMware fat client or Windows version of QuickBooks or others where Windows version is best etc.... I cannot speak for other hypervisors, but my aging MacBook air runs VMware Fusion so I hope the latest MacBook can.

It can. I do it all the time. VirtualBox and Ubuntu, via Vagrant. Works great.

I'm curious to know how it works on the new revision of the 12" MacBook. I was ready to do a tablet upgrade and/or consider a Surface Pro 4 m3 version and got very attracted to the MacBook.

In my case the hypervisor or VM running sofware would for sure be VMware Fusion. It's always been a favorite and offers the most for my scenario because I run vCenter and 20+ server instances across sites.

This MacBook and software licensing will surely cost more but it also looks like a way to do the absolute most in a small package if it will run a pretty simple Windows VM.

 

[imort]

Responding to a thread today, I had a thought regarding the new MacBook and VMs (virtual machines). So . . . I would like to get your thoughts about this use case.
Do you think the MacBook could run at least a single VM, say with Linux?

Sure it will be able at least to create and run one or more VM with VirtualBox or any other virtualization solution you'd used to.
It's mainly about the RAM available and if you can get at least one Gb of RAM for the server Linux and 2+ Gb for desktop Linux you will be fine.
If your Macbook is using an SSD drive then your VMs will run much more smoothly too.

The only problem you can face is insufficient of available RAM I suppose. You can take a look here to find out how to debug your Linux server performance problems.

 

[iOS Gravity]

I agree with Sean. I've tried that on an Early 2014 MBA and the results were terrible compared to using Bootcamp. Plus, why pay more money for something like parallels when you will get less performance?

 

[imwjl]

I've been running multiple VMs with the gen 2 MacBook for months now. It works fine. There are many reasons to use a VM hypervisor but a home or basic users might not need or appreciate those. Portability between systems, the utility of more than one OS at a time, snapshots, and for some the enterprise or admin features of VMware's product.

My system is the 1.2 m5 and the drive is encrypted. Performance is good.