Wary of trying MS4 along side MS3; has anybody tried Virtualbox? [VB seems to work]
It's imperative I don't "mess up" my MS3 environment (on Linux/Ubuntu 18.04). As such, I haven't tried getting a current build of MS4beta.
It occurred to me to consider installing MS4beta inside a Virtualbox VM. Seems to me that would assure MS3 & MS4beta are isolated. Has anybody tried using a VM? Thx.
Comments
What particular problems are you worried about?
i run 3.6 and 4.x as Appimages with no problems. MS3 configuration files are stored in MuseScore3 and MS4 in MuseScore4Development. You just need to be careful to backup your scores and not accidentally convert a MS3 score to MS4 without a copy.
In reply to i run 3.6 and 4.x as… by underquark
I have a number of work-in-progress scores. I don't know what problems might manifest, only after installing MS4beta. I've done personal computing since 1984. But nowadays, the absolute last thing I want is to face hours and hours of fixing problems.
Do I interpret "...stored in MuseScore3" to be the sub-dir which contains Extensions, Images, Plugins, Scores, SoundFonts, etc.? When starting MS4beta, does it create & use 'MuseScore4Development'?
In reply to I have a number of work-in… by Are Jayem
They operate completely independently. MuseScore 4 cannot interfere with MuseScore 3 any more than Microsoft Word can. I've been running both in parallel for months. They are complete unaware of each others' existence. As for which folders MuseScore4 uses by default, that differs for beta vs nightly builds (and will presumably also different for the release).
That said, there is a bug on macOS specifically where on some systems at least, the installer for MuseScore 4 removes the MsueScore 3 installation. Not your files, just the program itself. So, then you'd simply need to reinstall it. Not an issue on Windows or Linux.
In reply to They operate completely… by Marc Sabatella
I'm going to be hyper-paranoid and try out "Puppy Linux" inside Virtualbox. Puppy is pretty unconventional, but I'll report back what happens. When I see what MS4beta sets up, then I can more assuredly go with Marc's experience.
When I started using MS4 I tried opening back up MS3 but it basically replaced all of the files and completely overwrote or deleted all MS3 files as I can't find them anywhere!
Save all of your stuff separately!
EDIT: I use a mac. Just read Marc's comment lol.
EDIT EDIT: Just found my files! Ur right it's only the program itself.
In reply to When I started using MS4 I… by Unknown-1
Indeed, your files don’t go anywhere. Probably you just got confused because MuseScore 4 doesn’t know about your recent files in MuseScore 3 and is looking in a different folder for scores by default - part of the whole complete separation thing I am talking about.
FWIW, I have MS4 running on Puppy Linux FossaPup64 9.5, under Virtualbox, on Ubuntu Linux 18.04 Mate desktop. The MS4beta downloaded AppImg file need only have its 'execute' file attribute toggled-on.
I see this Beta creates Documents/MuseScore4, which - as Marc points out - keeps the two versions independent.
I can't use this frankenstein setup "in production" because it's painfully slow. On the HP thin-client machine I use - and with the virtualization layer - it's like asking a Volkswagon Bug to tow a semi-trailer. But I'm more comfortable installing along side MS3, now... Thanks for all the comments & help.