Runing Sketchup on Linux with VirtualBox

garthkh · 15 Oct 2011, 06:18

Hi
I'm new to this forum. I have been playing with SU for a few years on my Windows XP laptop and have wanted to rather see it on my Linux desktop. For many reasons I prefer the Linux platform over Windows and have now downloaded the latest VirtualBox from Oracle. Loaded up my old Windows XP as a virtual machine and it runs like a dream. The new version of VirtualBox allows seamless mouse movement and control between Linux and Windows (in the last use of VirtualBox I tried I needed to use a control key to move between machine). I see that I can now also expand the Windows XP window to full screen - which is great. I couldn't do this in a past usage of VirtualBox.
I tried WINE a while back and wasn't happy with it.

For those interested here is my configuration
OpenSuse 11.4 linux system (64Bit version)
500Gb hard drive
AMD AM3 Phenom II x4 955 3.2Ghz Quad Core processor
2Gb ram (I am upgrading this tomorrow to 2x 2Gb to see how Dual Channel works)
Latest release of VirtualBox and the guest extension download from Oracle (also free software).

Once the Windows virtual machine is defined it is configured to be able share directories with the Linux folders.
All the comms works automatically
Remember that Linux is FREE and it makes use of virtually any platform it's loaded on.
If one wants to add other virtual machines you can open them all at once. I think each virtual machine needs about 500Mb RAM minimum.
My system has 4 desktops defined so I can load the VirtualBox and Windows on desktop2, expand that to use the full screen, and jump between the desktops.
The bootup of the Windows environment is also very fast. And I am happy with the speed of the platform - even when dealing with graphics and video play etc.

I am really pleased to see this all running now and I can start some serious design work with SU for my woodworking projects, and some other software I use that can only run in Windows.