[Mageia-dev] Virtual machine image distribution

[Frank Griffin]

David Sjölin wrote:
> I would be interested in this, especially for the first versions. But
> as you say, one could install it oneself on a VirtualBox, but with
> some distributions I've used graphics can be complicated to get right
> in VirtualBox.
>   
Could you be more specific ?

Maybe I'm missing something, but I would think that anyone using a Linux
VM under Linux would be doing it from a production large-scale
perspective.  These people are the most likely to disregard any
one-size-fits-all, and customize their own VMs.  I can't see any real
value of such a feature there.

I would think that the primary interest in such an offering would be
appliance Linux images to run a Linux app or app set under another OS. 
This would involve either running both client and server in the VM, or
running the server in the VM and accessing it from a client in the
native OS.  But almost any useful application of this concept would
involve pretty extensive post-image-install customization for the
particular app set, and setting up a VM image is really no different
than and requires no skills other than those involved in a standard install.

I can't really see soaking up GB of mirror space for VM image variants
that even an interested newbie can build for himself from the standard
install.  At most, we might want to add a couple of install categories
that would conform more closely to the needs of such an appliance image.