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Automate download, install, config of IE-only VM's with VirtualBox (Linux/OSX)

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Re: Automate download, install, config of IE-only VM's with VirtualBox (Linux/OSX)

#21

Post by michaelbuckbee »

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #10

> curl -s https://raw.github.com/xdissent/ievms/master/ievms.sh | bash Bad trend in the open-source community. Please don't ask your users to install stuff this way. Not that you can't be trusted, it leads to people dropping their guard.

I kind of view bash piping as the worlds easiest install package.

Unequivocally, it is dangerous to run random pieces of code from the internet, it just seems odd to me that if this same code was in a nice packaged install wizard nobody would say anything about it.

Re: Automate download, install, config of IE-only VM's with VirtualBox (Linux/OSX)

#22

Post by michaelbuckbee »

killion wrote: post #17
michaelbuckbee wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't get the VMs to pass WGA so they are only good for 30 days before they have to be reset; which pretty much makes them only good for testing / qa purposes. This seems like a very reasonable decision on Microsoft's part: they make it easier / legal / quick to test on their platform and more people will support and develop on it.

By reset do you mean they have to be redownloaded?

Per the docs: "A snapshot is automatically taken upon install, allowing rollback to the pristine virtual environment configuration."

You can just roll back to that snapshot at the end of your 30 days and everything will continue to be usable.

Re: Automate download, install, config of IE-only VM's with VirtualBox (Linux/OSX)

#23

Post by fierarul »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #13
fierarul wrote: post #7

I can't believe Microsoft is giving away free Windows licenses as long as you use the vm image for IE. Which is basically the only reason I do have an old Windows XP vm on my Mac.

You can't get the VMs to pass WGA so they are only good for 30 days before they have to be reset; which pretty much makes them only good for testing / qa purposes. This seems like a very reasonable decision on Microsoft's part: they make it easier / legal / quick to test on their platform and more people will support and develop on it.

I dunno, it could be useful for a number of things.

For example, I know a few online banking solutions that are IE-only. The most you need there might be a certificate, so resetting the vm every 30 days isn't such a big deal.

I try to keep the VMs as small as possible anyhow and if you need data, you keep it in a VM shared folder that you map in the Windows guest.

Re: Automate download, install, config of IE-only VM's with VirtualBox (Linux/OSX)

#24

Post by trafficlight »

chc wrote: post #18
MatthewPhillips wrote: post #10

> curl -s https://raw.github.com/xdissent/ievms/master/ievms.sh | bash Bad trend in the open-source community. Please don't ask your users to install stuff this way. Not that you can't be trusted, it leads to people dropping their guard.

Is it particularly worse than downloading and blindly running the code in separate steps? I don't think the majority of users have ever extensively audited the software they run, so it's not exactly a new trend. If you are capable of evaluating this script, you already know how to do it.

I would bet a fair amount would open the script up in an editor and say, "Yep. That's code alright".

Re: Automate download, install, config of IE-only VM's with VirtualBox (Linux/OSX)

#25

Post by rdl »

fierarul wrote: post #8
RexRollman wrote: post #6

Personally speaking, I would love to see Google release an offical, downloadable ChromeOS images that could be used with VMWare or Virtualbox. Something like that could be a real boon for some users.

The magic in ChromeOS is the hardware Google uses from the Chromebooks. There is an unofficial site with images for Chromium(?)OS but it doesn't look pretty.

What is the magic beyond SSD (and good acpi/power management integration), trusted boot (using a TPM), and OpenGL?

Re: Automate download, install, config of IE-only VM's with VirtualBox (Linux/OSX)

#26

Post by sp332 »

wiredfool wrote: post #5

Is there a way to make this work with KVM, or is this using something special from the virtualbox distrubution to convert the .vhds?

I thought VirtualBox could mount the .vhds natively? I'm pretty sure I'm running one right now...

Re: Automate download, install, config of IE-only VM's with VirtualBox (Linux/OSX)

#27

Post by Groxx »

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #10

> curl -s https://raw.github.com/xdissent/ievms/master/ievms.sh | bash Bad trend in the open-source community. Please don't ask your users to install stuff this way. Not that you can't be trusted, it leads to people dropping their guard.

Why is it worse than running an installer? It has identical capabilities, but the .sh file can be read.

Re: Automate download, install, config of IE-only VM's with VirtualBox (Linux/OSX)

#29

Post by mtogo »

Groxx wrote: post #27
MatthewPhillips wrote: post #10

> curl -s https://raw.github.com/xdissent/ievms/master/ievms.sh | bash Bad trend in the open-source community. Please don't ask your users to install stuff this way. Not that you can't be trusted, it leads to people dropping their guard.

Why is it worse than running an installer? It has identical capabilities, but the .sh file can be read.

If you install a package via the package managers on debian, ubuntu, fedora, and other major distros you can be reasonably sure that the packages aren't malicious because they've been security reviewed before they made it into APT/YUM/etc. Downloading some shell script off the internet and running it without even reading it first is a really bad idea by comparison.

Re: Automate download, install, config of IE-only VM's with VirtualBox (Linux/OSX)

#30

Post by pointyhat »

aninteger wrote: post #12
brianjolney wrote: post #4

from the github wiki: Rough VM size estimates: IE7: 13GB IE8: 8.4GB IE9: 13GB Currently, the script will leave the compressed RAR files in place, which means you're looking at something like 45 freaking GB if you don't prune them manually (in ~/.ievms/vhd/). This wasn't a big deal for me on my company workstation, but kinda sucks on my Macbook Air, so I'll be adding a cleanup option shortly. You probably don't need t…

I know you aren't the creator of those VMs but, any idea why they are so big? What's weird is that there's a jump from 8.4 GB to 13 GB on Windows 7. What is on the IE9 vhd that isn't on the IE8 vhd? Edit: Nevermind, from the official link the IE9 vm comes with additional tools.

On Win7, the jump is due to WinSxS. Every DLL several times and several versions. DLL hell solved.
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