Though I vastly prefer Linux, I still use Windows XP-Pro 64-bit in order to run the HTML Editor, other Coffee Cup software and a local XAMPP Web server stack. This becomes risky starting April 8, 2014, when Microsoft drops security bug fixes for XP. (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/endofsupport.aspx)

I've tried running the HTML Editor using the Wine library on Ubuntu Linux. It ALMOST runs properly, but it encounters problems, such as wanting to use function keys reserved to Ubuntu's Unity UI. I've explored the possibility that Coffee Cup might support Linux, but it seems they consider the Windows and MAC market segments more lucrative. (And I think they're correct about this.)

So how about running Coffee Cup's software in a Windows XP virtual machine on Linux? Canonical says (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VirtualMachines) that might be done with one of these:

Xen
VirtualBox
VMWare
Qemu
Parallels

Has anyone on this forum tried this? Is it practical? Which VM is best for this purpose? What "gotchas" are involved in doing this?

OK, let me confess the whole truth: Also I'm hooked on a couple of games dependent upon Win-XP. I'm not sure if these run on Win-7 and versions thereafter.

Have you tried dual booting, or perhaps loading XP on a removable drive setting the boot sequence to activate that drive on start up. I use a virtual drive to run a program I made on a usb drive using Truecrypt.

I shall stick with XP until nothing runs on it. It is the best operating system MS came up with. I tried Linux and have Ubuntu on DVD as a plaything but I think that is for the masochists out there. Mac's well good for schools no one can be bothered to hack them.

Let us know if you have success. My mates in a programming forum are coming up with all sorts of bugs with Win7 and 8, MS it seems has programmed Win 8 with work around's. These guys are above my pay grade so I go by their findings.

I am dual-booting at present. Your recommendation to use a separate drive is spot on: Windows is somewhat jealous of sharing a physical drive. I avoid the hellish fury of Windows scorned by installing Windows on physical drive A and only then connecting physical drive B in order to install Ubuntu Linux. The Ubuntu boot manager (Grub2) controls which OS boots; Windows is thus oblivious to this cuckoldry.

Thanks to built-in Windows filesystem support, I can read & write Windows files from the Linux boot. (Too bad that I can't do the same from the Windows boot.) Linux symbolic link capability (same idea as the Windows shortcut) allows me to run certain applications on either Linux or Windows while referring to the same, single set of Windows data files. In particular, I run Firefox, Thunderbird and the XAMPP stack in this way: same browser bookmarks, email and Web projects on either system.

This has worked well for a couple of years. However, the moment Microsoft ceases providing security updates next year, XP becomes vulnerable. I'd like to continue running XP, but safely "sandboxed" in a virtual machine, with network access confined within my router's firewall. Linux would host the Windows virtual machine as well as a LAN-accessible XAMPP stack.

This would let me jump in & out of the Windows VM in order to run the CC HTML editor, test my work locally and manage changes with Git. At the cost of a big slug of memory (but memory is cheap), this would actually be more convenient than dual-booting.

So, given all that, I'd like to know which of the available virtual machines is best for my purpose.

Your Ob't Masochist,
Halfnium

I am hoping I can stick with XP, it is so kind to the programming language I use. I have been thinking of creating a access monitor to my system to see what attacks I get if any. It would treat any outside contact as suspicious unless given the all clear.

Having the system in a virtual space could be a good possibility. Strange as it seems I still have only had one attack in years. I got rid of it with a roll back.

I would be interested in any VM you come up with. I love playing with my CC ware so XP does it for me. When XP is abandoned maybe it can be resurrected by an interest group. My sons use IPad's Iphone's and are happy with Apples restrictions.It is a shame it lacks the flash player's videos.

I wish you luck with your quest but my interests lie elsewhere

Could be that ReactOS, an open-source project, will allow you to stick with programs written to run on Windows XP after Microsoft has turned the final spade over XP's interment. See: http://www.reactos.org/

I hope so, but I've got my doubts. The WINE (http://linux.about.com/od/softorther/a/softotherwine.htm) developers have wrestled with this problem for years, and they still suffer lots of practical problems.

In any case, Prism, if you want to keep on using XP indefinitely, I recommend doing a fresh XP install in early April of 2014, accepting all security and functional updates available, and then saving a copy of that system's image for future use. I will certainly be doing that. Because you are correct: XP is the best thing that Microsoft ever created.

Thanks for the heads up, I shall try live CD to check compatibility. I use a VB type language 'Rapidq' MS does not have it all wrapped up.

Anyway I have a clean image I can install. I have three, replacing the first with the latest every 3 months. Actually doing a defrag as I type ready for the next image.

I have a terabyte drive for backups. Put my Christmas wish in for one of the new 4 terabyte remote drives. The android memory is available, camera for sight, robotics for movement , text to speech. All it needs is a artificial intelligence program and who needs humans. Our replacements are on their way. The Mars rover is still working years after it was thought it would die but a nuclear fuel cell powers it.

Who needs gas powered cars. Sorry about that, I was born 70 years too early, we are just getting into the good stuff.

Well, I went and did it. I'm running the CoffeeCup HTML Editor on Ubuntu Linux. I have a screen shot to prove it, but at 545 KB, it exceeds this forum's limit. If you'd like to see it, email me at the address shown below.