Firstly - I couldn't get a downloaded .iso image to boot properly. I believe the iso was bootable (although don't actually know how to check). it was a standard MSDN image as downloaded from them... So, ?
I ended up getting a bootable dvd version of the iso, and put that in the drive, and then it was picked up and the install proceeded ok.
Given vista has been out for a while, and there's a bunch of updates/service packs etc, it's not surprising that the resulting updates took hours/days to get installed. Eventually I had a stabale Vista on SP1.
A couple of points from here:
- you can optimise the performance of the image by managing the number of virtual CPU's and the amount of ram assigned to the image. I have the iStatPro widget on my mac, and that combined with the CPU guages on the sidebar in Vista means that I could see the relative CPU loads and memory loads on the host and guest operating system. I ended up giving the image 2 cpu's and then about 1.2GB of RAM. It then seemed to operate satisfactorily.
- the performance is delicate. If there is any downloading/updating in the background both the host & guest seem to be a bit dodgy. Eventually it all settles down, but it's unnerving.
I have now installed VS2008 SP1, Expression Blend 2, and a couple of tech previews (azure & live) and I'm working in blend, and it's all pretty smooth.
the Unity feature is Excellent. I love having the mac and windows windows interlaced and running. it's a bit disturbing for the purist :-) but it works for me.
I think I'll be purchasing VMWare fusion once the eval runs out - it's a good piece of kit.
