> At one time I thought that for compatibility I would be running Linux as > the host OS and then could run Windows Vista as a guest OS. >
Yes, EXCEPT the Linux VM software that I've run does a terrible job running Windows. The functionality is bad and the basic drivers are slow. There are a few distros that include a reasonable copy of Xen and decent paravirualized (PV) Windows drivers (SUSE and XenSource, are two). But these PV drivers are not particularly well written, and don't seem (to me) to provide much perf advantage. SOME day, maybe. > My current understanding is that MS will not permit running > Vista as a guest on any virtualized environment:( That tells me they are > scared of the competition. > This is not correct. CERTAIN VERSIONS of Vista (like, Home Basic) are not allowed by Microsoft to be virtualized. This seems to me to be silly, but that's what the license says. However, some home and biz versions of Vista are allowed to be run in VMs by their license. > > I do hope that more programmer's will be able to write cross platform > programs, but not being a programmer, I understand it is still not easy > to do even with the improved software. > It comes down to three things: (a) Annoyance, (b) Familiarity, (c) Religion. It is just presently too annoying to write ordinary programs that are compatible cross-platform. It's just no fun, and many of us write ham radio programs for fun. In terms of familiarity, most developers are deeply familiar with Windows or Linux, but rarely both. So, while a great many of us can USE either OS, few of us are EXPERTS on both systems. And there are of course a number of "true believers" (we call them "fan boys" in the biz). These are folks who are "loyal" to a given platform, and no amount of rational discourse could ever dislodge them. de Peter K1PGV
