Lazarus on VM - which distribution?

[Nicole]

At the moment I run Lazarus on a VMWare - Win 10.
Until the interface after a suspension shows up, - I go for a coffee in between.

My Delphi VM with Win 7 ist several times as quick.

What would you recommend?
I ask myself, if Linux would speed up the thing.
If you think this wise, which distrubiton would you recommend?
It would be great, to have link of a prefab VM for VMWare, as I am not good at Linux and installing it is hard to me.

Thanks!

[Handoko]

I heard a lot Manjaro mentioned in the forum. So I believe it should be okay.

I personally prefer Ubuntu, not because it is better but because they have large user base, so it should be easier to find information if I have problem with it. I'm using Ubuntu Mate, it is a lightweight flavor of Ubuntu. Linux Mint, which is a non -official flavor of Ubuntu, is frequently mentioned in the forum. You should consider Linux Mint too.

For your information, some years ago Lazarus had installation issues with Ubuntu, Mate and Mint. But as far as I know recent versions of Lazarus no longer have that problem.

I ever tried Manjaro, Fedora, Ubuntu, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu Mate, Linux Mint, all of them are very easy to instal. Just some clicks, provide some information and wait.

[rvk]

At the moment I run Lazarus on a VMWare - Win 10.
Until the interface after a suspension shows up, - I go for a coffee in between.
My Delphi VM with Win 7 ist several times as quick.
What would you recommend?

I would recommend trying Lazarus in the Win7 VM.
If Delphi starts up fast, Lazarus should start even faster on that VM.

(You can run Delphi and Lazarus perfectly side-by-side in the same VM)

You can also copy the Delphi VM to a new VM and use that one.
You probably have the Win10 VM configured poorly or have insufficient resources (regarding memory etc).

[Handoko]

I use VirtualBox on Ubuntu Mate. When I had 6GB of memory, my computer run poorly. After upgraded to 8GB, it runs smoothly now. 2GB makes a big difference in my case.

Maybe OP needs to upgrade the computer's memory.

[Zvoni]

As to the original Question:
I'm very satisfied with Manjaro, Cinnamon-Desktop and LightDM

[af0815]

It depends on you hardware. With a Lot of Ram eg. 32GB, fast CPU with enough cores and fast SSDs it is no problem to run vbox machines Version fast. Near normal speed. Win7 or win10 is no Problem for me. Linux i prefere Debian for historical reasons.

[winni]

Hi!

16 GB RAM is really enough.

Suse Tumbleweed, VirtualBox and Win7:

Boots faster than native Windows.
Speed is near to native Windows.

You need a lot of RAM for a virtual machine.
That's the whole secret.

Winni

[440bx]

At the moment I run Lazarus on a VMWare - Win 10.
Until the interface after a suspension shows up, - I go for a coffee in between.

My Delphi VM with Win 7 ist several times as quick.

What would you recommend?
I ask myself, if Linux would speed up the thing.
If you think this wise, which distrubiton would you recommend?
It would be great, to have link of a prefab VM for VMWare, as I am not good at Linux and installing it is hard to me.

Thanks!

The problem is that you're using Win10.  On Win10, it takes Lazarus about 8 to 10 times longer to boot than in Win7 because of "Windows Defender" (nothing slows down your computer like that thing.)

Recommendation: have a Win7 VM and run Lazarus in that VM. It takes less than 2 seconds (and that's on an older machine) for it to be ready and, btw, since you're running in a VM, you don't need an antivirus.  Got a virus ?... shut down the VM, reset to the previous snapshot and restart... virus gone!.

HTH.

[af0815]

What ist youre targetplatform if your compile with Lazarus. If your target is windows, stay in windows. And if you use win10, use win10 pro not home.  Make a real lean Installation without bloatware. For me this is fast as normal machine.

[MarkMLl]

What ist youre targetplatform if your compile with Lazarus. If your target is windows, stay in windows. And if you use win10, use win10 pro not home.  Make a real lean Installation without bloatware. For me this is fast as normal machine.

I second that: if remotely viable, the best OS to use for development is the one you'll be using for deployment, or at least a close relative.

I'd also point out that if you do have to use a VM or container, using a related host OS is often more efficient than using something unrelated. I tend to use Debian for stuff, and I've had quite a lot of success putting Debian into a Docker container into which I could SSH and install FPC and Lazarus... presumably similar facilities exist for Windows. (I'm being cautious here, since what I had was containerised Lazarus running as a window on my host desktop, not a complete virtualised guest with its own desktop.)

Also note Handoko's point about having enough RAM: I'm currently working with fallback computers (after a power glitch apparently caused damage) and even with the same OS I notice a difference between a 3Gb and 4Gb system. I'm on the lookout for a replacement with at least 8Gb, since however regrettable I think that's a current reasonable minimum: gone are the days when Linux could boot from a floppy and run happily in 4Mb.

MarkMLl

[PascalDragon]

The problem is that you're using Win10.  On Win10, it takes Lazarus about 8 to 10 times longer to boot than in Win7 because of "Windows Defender" (nothing slows down your computer like that thing.)

Best add the FPC and Lazarus directories to the exception list of Windows Defender...

I'd also point out that if you do have to use a VM or container, using a related host OS is often more efficient than using something unrelated. I tend to use Debian for stuff, and I've had quite a lot of success putting Debian into a Docker container into which I could SSH and install FPC and Lazarus... presumably similar facilities exist for Windows. (I'm being cautious here, since what I had was containerised Lazarus running as a window on my host desktop, not a complete virtualised guest with its own desktop.)

On Windows 10 and newer one can use WSL to work with Linux applications. Allows me to easily test the result of cross compilation to various platforms with QEMU's userspace emulation inside the WSL distribution (at home an ArchLinux, at work a Debian).

[Nicole]

Thank you all for the answers. 
I was not aware, that Win 10 is that slow.

Since long I use Win 10 Pro - for the sandbox and for the option to get rid of those updates, which destroyed my configuration often enough in the past.

I tried much to swith off the defender, - Windows switches it on every time again 

I will try this thing with the "exceptions of Defender". I did this in the past, but forgot about it. It is really a good idea to cover my programming files as well by this. This defender used to delete my virus collection without notice in the past and was not able to restore it. And not to forget about the "PUA"....

It is a pity, that Windows is such a goody operating system. Otherwise I would not have accepted, how they dominate my computer and my files.

[440bx]

Best add the FPC and Lazarus directories to the exception list of Windows Defender...

Thanks!  That definitely helped.  Not quite as fast as in Win7 but close enough to be usable.

[dseligo]

Best add the FPC and Lazarus directories to the exception list of Windows Defender...

Thanks!  That definitely helped.  Not quite as fast as in Win7 but close enough to be usable.

I was reading this and decided to put Lazarus directories to the exception list of Windows Defender also.
I was surprised when I found them there already.
Obviously, I had problems with that before.

[Nicole]

I re-installed Lazarus on my Win 7 Delphi VM and am really happy with this solution.
Thank you so much for the hint(s)!