Day 2 of Change: The Virtual Machine Rabbit Hole

I almost forgot to write this entry because I was preparing for the Adobe Hackathon test today. And… well, I completed it. Not sure what I feel about it yet — maybe relief, maybe nothing. But somewhere between test stress and curiosity, a strange urge hit me: I wanted to explore virtual machines.

That small spark turned into a full-blown adventure.

It started with me trying to understand how virtual machines actually work. I went deep into the internet, searching every possible corner to figure it out. Naturally, that led me into the world of Linux, and soon I was downloading Ubuntu. The ISO file was massive — 5.9 GB. My poor internet connection dragged it on and on… what felt like half an hour stretched into an eternity. Waiting became a test of patience.

While that was still downloading, I found an alternative: Lubuntu — a lightweight version of Ubuntu. Just 3 GB. I switched gears and started installing that instead. Thankfully, it only took 15 minutes to install.

Once done, I opened up VirtualBox, plugged in the ISO, and suddenly, I was living the fantasy of being a Linux developer. But this wasn’t just a boot-up-and-go kind of experience. I quickly learned that everything in Linux has to be installed. Need copy-paste support? Gotta install something. Want shared folders? Another install. One command after another:
sudo this, sudo apt that—you get the idea.

My curiosity wasn’t satisfied yet. I wanted to try installing an app inside the virtual machine. But there was a problem: the app I had was only available for Windows and macOS. No Linux version. That’s when I discovered WINE — a compatibility layer that allows you to run Windows applications in a Linux environment.

To be honest, I had zero hopes that it would work. But I installed WINE anyway and ran the app. Miraculously, it actually opened! For about 30 seconds, I was shocked. Then, as if mocking my optimism, JavaScript errors began piling up on the screen like a horror movie. The app just collapsed in front of my eyes. I knew it wouldn’t work fully, but still, that little moment gave me hope… and then took it away.

And this is where the story takes a whole new arc.

I got it into my head that I should try using my laptop’s webcam inside the virtual machine. Guess what? There’s no camera app by default in Lubuntu. Probably because it’s so lightweight. To make that work, I had to juggle a dozen different settings, reinstall drivers, tweak permissions on the host machine, and enable USB passthrough. I did all of that. Still didn’t work.
I have never tried this hard for anything tech-related in my life. It was exhausting… but in a weird way, fun.

Midway through all this, my Ubuntu ISO (the original one) finally finished downloading. So, I thought maybe I should try installing that too. But then my iEold (yes, my old i3 laptop, lovingly nicknamed like an elderly lady from a meme) reminded me of her limits. Everything started lagging like crazy. I shut it all down.

Tired, I picked up my phone to relax. I thought I might scroll through Shorts or Reels — but wait, I’d deleted all of them to stay focused. Just as I was wondering what to do, I saw a notification: the latest chapter of One Piece, Chapter 1154, had dropped — albeit unofficially. I’m a massive One Piece fan (but let’s not get into that now — that’s a whole different topic for another post).

So I read it.
Boy oh boy, what a chapter! Rocks D. Xebec’s face reveal? That hit like a truck. I was completely blown away.

Still curious, still not tired, I circled back to the idea of virtual machines. This time, I gave Azure another chance. Initially, I was afraid it might burn through my student credits like wildfire, but now I had no other choice.

And guess what? It was a breeze. Everything worked perfectly.
I deleted two earlier VMs I had created using low-cost configurations (they were painfully slow), and I created a new one that ran smoothly. No setup nightmares. No Linux gymnastics.

Now coming to my to-do list for the day?
Not even a single task has been checked off yet.
It’s already 9:30 PM.
But if I finish writing this post, I guess I’ll be able to cross off at least one thing.

There’s still time left. Let’s see what else I can get done.