Beat a path forward...

[chachaman]

Hello,

I have a small company. I know my business very well and I learned how to program with VB6 and developed many mission critical programs with VB6, Office 2000 and Windows 2000 operating system. I did most of this development during 1999 and I spent the better part of the year working on these programs. We are now 2014 and these programs serve me well to this day.

MS discontinued support for Win 2000 so I spent a lot of energy to transfer some applications to XP for some users but I still have some Win 2000 boxes running.

Then MS discontinued VB6.

Now MS is discontinuing XP and they are literally pulling the rug from under my feet.

It doesn't make sense to me that MS can come inside my business and revoke tools that are perfectly satisfactory.

I can't keep up with MS, nor do I want to. This for me is the third strike and THEY ARE OUT !

I would like to know if the following intention is doable :

1. I would like to use a version of Linux that is likely to be around for the next 15 years.
2. I would like to install VirtualBox
3. I would like to install either windows 2000 or XP as an OS complete with IIS
4. I would like to install the following programs
.....MS Office 2000
.....VB6
5. I would like to use something similar to Microsoft Application Virtualization (also known as App-V ). MS App-V platform allows applications to be deployed ("streamed") in real-time to any client from a virtual application server. It removes the need for traditional local installation of the applications. Multiple users can therefor simultaneously access the applications.

If I could successfully do this, I would have only one station to maintain. This station would contain all the Legacy applications and serve them by way console or

Would anybody care to comment this approach and point me in the right direction by making suggestions and warning me of some pitfalls ?

[socratis]

<rant> ... </rant>
1. I would like to use a version of Linux that is likely to be around for the next 15 years.

No one knows for sure. I'm not sure what kind of business you're in, but in software, 15 years is a lifetime (as you mention). BTW, not that I particularly like Microsoft, but they stop supporting these products. That doesn't mean that they will stop working one day out of the blue.

2. I would like to install VirtualBox
3. I would like to install either windows 2000 or XP as an OS complete with IIS
4. I would like to install the following programs ..MS Office 2000 ..VB6

Absolutely doable. No problem.

5. I would like to use something similar to Microsoft Application Virtualization (also known as App-V ). MS App-V platform allows applications to be deployed ("streamed") in real-time to any client from a virtual application server. It removes the need for traditional local installation of the applications. Multiple users can therefor simultaneously access the applications.

That, I'm not sure. I've never heard that before. But a 10 min of reading (in Wikipedia mostly), showed some severe limitations. Also, I couldn't find the hardware requirements for it, but the word "Virtual" kind of scares me, because you can't easily run a virtual environment within a virtual environment.

Two thoughts:
1) Why don't you stick with what you have? Don't fix it if it isn't broken.
2) Why don't you try your setup with VirtualBox? Except some time, you have nothing to lose.

[chachaman]

Hello Socratis,

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

Going forward, I don't want to install the obsolete applications on the newer workstations I seemingly will be forced to use.

Also, I want to contain all that Legacy software in one Box and maintain it from there.

The missing link is how to stream the applications to newer workstations using newer operating systems.

Regards

[noteirak]

5. I would like to use something similar to Microsoft Application Virtualization (also known as App-V ). MS App-V platform allows applications to be deployed ("streamed") in real-time to any client from a virtual application server. It removes the need for traditional local installation of the applications. Multiple users can therefor simultaneously access the applications.

Virtualbox cannot do that simply because it is outside of its scope. Virtualbox is about hardware virtualization. This is purely application virtualization.
Tools exists on the market, search for "application virtualization". Quite a few will come up.
You can also go for Terminal Services/Dedicated Remote Desktops.