How to open file using Google drive api?

How can I create a cross-platform file-sharing virtual machine environment on a home laptop or desktop?

• Basically I want to juggle various VMs on one single laptop (which I don't have, yet), sharing my work files between them, running safely, virtualizing my existing XP desktop in one VM, and transitioning from the ever more ominous big guys (Microsoft, Google, Apple...) to community-based Linux. ATM, I am stuck at issues of incompatible filesystems and a problematic trial Linux Mint installation which suggests the host OS may have to be exchanged at least once until I find one which runs well on the soon to be bought laptop's internal HDD. The plan in detail: It's time for me to migrate from a desktop to a laptop. I have a small budget (~$300) for a refurb and a lot of accumulated Windows software which I will wish to continue using for some time to come. So, at first, I thought I'd go with Win7 on the laptop I would buy since XP is now obsolete and Win8 holds no appeal. As I was checking options, I realized Microsoft (M$) seems to be ditching backwards compatibility, Win7 is still very expensive even as it has already been superseded, and all the big OS corporations (M$, Google, and probably Apple, as well) are headed in the Software as Service Cloud Computing direction which will turn us all into dependent serfs (plus touch screen interfaces - Yuck!). It is not a direction I wish to take. I want choice and control of my computing environment and files. The only serious contender in the OS world seems to be Linux, and so I have switched to hoping I can virtualize my XP desktop on the soon to be bought laptop (essentally packing it up and taking it with me - not even having to rebuild it) and experiment with Linus distros in additional VMs. If the virtualisation cannot or should not run bare metal, Linux would seem the best host OS for hopefully lower overhead, for being there to run an increasing amount of software from the Linux world natively as I transition into this world, and so as to cut ties with M$ and the other hegemonial giants. Security from malware is also an issue important to me. About me: I was an IT guy myself, back in the 90's, mostly Old World Macs and some DOS/Windows. I am outdated now but skilled in figuring things out. However, I have to make my living outside IT and can't spend too much time configuring my tools and machinery all the time. While it can be fun, and at times I spend days or weeks on it like right now, I often am too busy for anything but my gainful grunt jobs, at which time my home office just has to work (inside VM or otherwise). That is one reason why a good virtualization of my current XP desktop, configured over many years, would help. My steps and findings so far: VMware vCenter Converter Standalone v. 5.5.2 for Windows virtualized my desktop while running on it under its XP without a hitch. Only, if I picked the right settings (NAT, Player 6 output, 1 GB RAM when I wanted 2 but that didn't seem configurable...) is up in the air. Can my XP VM never have more than a measly 1 GB? I was unable to find a Linux distro which has virtualization software preinstalled so as to maybe test the VM (after I move it to an external HDD) easily from a live DVD. (see: ) I installed Linux Mint 17 with Cinnamon on the external HDD allowing it to reformat the drive since installing on the existing partitions was anything but non-trivial. It now has sda1 = ext2, sda2 = extended, sda5 = lvm2pv for logical volume management (perhaps a bad choice for VM-VM-host-VM file sharing?). Already my XP and a Vista-laptop I borrowed for testing (and which ran the live DVD installer for Mint) can see the drive but can't recognize the file systems, and it only boots the XP-owned desktop (albeit with Cinnamon unable to run) but not the Vista-owned trial laptop (even though it was created from there). Maybe I should reinstall using Robolinux or some other Linux and filesystem/partitioning scheme? I am stumped figuring out filesharing. Virtualbox seems to be the VM hosting application of choice on Linux systems (except for arcane KVM / qemu about which I still know next to little; and I haven't seen much VMware stuff in the repositories which came on the Mint live DVD). Virtualbox apparently does some form of filesharing according to things I have read, but I have come to wonder about filesystems (stuff like NTFS, ext2, ...) which both XP and Linux can use for this purpose. There seems to be a problem there. Worse, if I were to try to run an OSX VM, too (I have a broken iBook I wouldn't mind to host from a backup I made). I have seen suggestions for doing file sharing via a networking created between the host and its VMs  (such as a directory on the host system being offered to the VMs as a simulated LAN server of sorts). Is that really better? Originally I had hoped to inhibit the spreading of malware and intrusions by not networking the VMs. For the same reason, I am not big on setting up home networks. Best not to be linked to family members who can't be bothered to put up with the nagging from a personal firewall or a script filter or disabled Java in their web browser. I haven't had many crippling malware isues in my life, due to taking precautions, and I'd like to keep it that way. This reminds me that I am skeptical of many Linux user's claims that Linux is impervious to attacks because of its obscurity. In the pre-OSX world, we learned that it took only one virus to do you in if you were not prepared, and with Linux becoming more popular it will attract more attacks (I already saw a list of about 100 malwares written for Linux). ;-) BTW, I may not be able to connect to the Internet from any new OS installation until I/we move to a new home again, since the last Comcast technician set up our WiFi network in my absence leaving no info on the password he used (insert choice comment here). In my readings, I have also come across bewildering "backup/clone/snapshot" nuances and "Guest Additions"... It's hard to see the forest for all the trees. How best to get started and learn anything needful as the need arises without finding oneself painted in a corner already? It seems to me that the old traditional non-logical partitions may still have a use here (to be able to swap host OSs), but installing some dual-boot scheme adds more complexity, still. I could really use advice from people with years of recent experience doing what I propose. It seems to me that VMs are the best thing to do nowadays, especially when one wants to transition away from the big corporations to Linux. When done right, it probably simplifies life rather than complicating it. The info I find on the web is overwhelmingly varied and confusing, though, and a lot of it does not apply to just one single desktop or laptop or to cross-platform file sharing. How to move forward?

• Answer:

  Rather than share filesystems, you probably want the host operating system to provide a network filesystem mounted by each of the guest operating systems. This is the pro forma method used in Products like Parallels and VMWare Fusion (for OS X). There, the host filesystem is mounted as a VM-internal network mount. You may still run into some peculiarities regarding file attributes, but that's better than the mess you get by trying to use EXT3 software under Windows or NTFS under Linux.