For other open-source OSes, some projects offer official QCOW2 images:
These sources host popular "Lite" or "Super Nano" versions of Windows XP that are optimized for virtual machines:
A standard Windows XP installation can be bloated for a virtual environment. Lite versions offer several advantages:
| OS | RAM usage | Disk size | License | |----|-----------|-----------|---------| | (legit, needs license) | ~1.5 GB | ~10 GB | Commercial | | Linux Lite (XFCE) | ~300 MB | ~3 GB | Free | | Puppy Linux (frugal install) | <100 MB | <500 MB | Free | | ReactOS (XP-like open-source, alpha) | ~200 MB | ~1 GB | GPL |
: Windows XP is not free software. While Microsoft no longer supports it, they still own the copyright. You typically need a valid product key to complete installation or activation.
Since pre-made qcow2 files are rare, the standard procedure is to create an empty virtual disk and install the Lite ISO onto it using :
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