[Closed] Linux on work machine - help me decide

I'm a developer/consultant.

I know how to do my job with either.. and I'm bored and thought I'd post.. you know...

.. you know...

dual boot, best of both world.

The 'upgrade' to Red hat on my works machine was mandatory. If it wasn't I'd be running Win7.

not sure it runs well with only 32Gb of memory...

Why don't you like it?

I recently got a new desktop at work to replace my aging Mac. I ended up opting for Windows 7 and VirtualBox with a RedHat VM.

Windows does a pretty good job of the day to day admin type stuff, and most folks I deal with use M$Office in some form or another so it saves me bothering with LibreOffice interoperability. The Linux VM is where I do most of my 'real work' which involves lots of scripting and *nix CLI type stuff.

Works well. Until I got this I'd not used Windows for about 10 years other than in a VM so I could run Visio.

Is there any real advantage to dual boot these days? Most modern systems have more than enough horsepower to drive a host OS and at least one guest surely?

I would go for native Linux with multiple windows VMs. I suppose if I'm going to use VMs for client work it doesn't matter what host OS I use does it?

I would go for native Linux with multiple windows VMs.

ESXi, then.

You can always be relied upon to come up with something more niche and geeky* 🙂

Wtf is ESXi?

* giche?

Why don't you like it?

Mostly that I have to do nearly everything in a Windows VM anyway. MS compatible stuff itsn't generally as compatible as it's made out to be.

Eg: e-mail arrives on linux e-mail system, save attachment, move to vm, open attachment in MS Office.

Wtf is ESXi?

Hyper-v server 2012 looks promising and more feature packed than esxi 5.

Also, windows 8 now has hyper-v client and supposedly you can build a vm on there and migrate it to hyper-v server 2012.

So hang on - these systems are like a super lightweight host OS that only runs VMs, yes?

I should add that this needs to be free; come as part of VMWare since we have licenses for that; or be part of Win8 Pro which I might be purchasing.

Yes, host OS that runs VMs (aka Hypervisors). ESXi and Hyper-V Server are free, but the free version of ESXi has some limitations.

I reckon go with Windows 8 Pro. Hyper-V Client probably runs better than a workstation vm tool like virtualbox, or VMWare workstation (if thats what its called now).

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh857623.aspx

I had a quick look, couldn't figure it out - you download and install Hyper V server as you would an OS, then from there you can create your VMs like you do in VMWare workstation?

You know the best way to decide whether to upgrade ----

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these systems are like a super lightweight host OS that only runs VMs, yes?

Yup. And free.

TBH, now that I've actually stopped and thought about it, I'm less convinced that ESXi is suitable for a desktop environment and even less so for a laptop. You'd need a second machine to RDP into any of the guest OSes.

Your original suggestion of a host OS (Windows / Linux) and multiple VMs is probably the best solution. Which one you use as the host is probably just personal preference, I suppose.

Sounds like you are considering a similar system to what I've got up - I run debian as the main OS; then have a Windows 7 VM set up under KVM. SeamlessRDP allows me to operate apps from both sides relatively seamlessly; though I do have to have the windows start menu on the right hand side of my monitor to prevent it interfering with the native menu bars.

I'm not sure I'd ever go back to a native windows install; I'm just looking forward to the day I can stop using the VM 🙂

I'm a developer/consultant.

Wtf is ESXi?

er.... not quite sure what to make of that. Nothing like keeping up to date with the IT trends of the last 10 years 😉

What specifically do you do? as it might have a big impact on your choice and help people advise accordingly.

Host OS of your choice with a Hypervisor for guests seems like the best option. Personally I would always pick a Linux Host and run Windows VMs where appropriate but choose your Host on what you prefer and are most comfortable with is normally the best option. Unless you have specific requirements to deal with certain things in the Host that would be a pain to shuffle between Guests.

Which one you use as the host is probably just personal preference, I suppose.

Well there is another point - my colleagues like to distribute VMs with environments ready-set up on them. They are usually Windows based, so if I run Linux as my host OS I technically still have my machine's windows license available to run them. Provided they are W7 of course...

ESXi is a headless server product, not for the desktop...

We have a few boxes here with it on, running VM XP desktops for people to Remote Desktop onto.

All depends on what you want from your workstation.....

Either Win7 x64 as the host, with VMWare Workstation 9 on top - or Redhat/Debian/Slackware/Whatever as the host, and Workstation 9 on top...

Do you work on "one or the other" during the whole development project - if so, dual-booting might be an idea (reboot to other OS when a project requires it...).

There's a big difference between server (Xen, Hyper-V, ESX) and desktop (Worksation, VirtualPC, VirtualBox, Qemu) virtual environments...

Nothing like keeping up to date with the IT trends of the last 10 years

In Java-land we have been using VMs for longer than that. Sort of 🙂

There's a big difference between server (Xen, Hyper-V, ESX) and desktop (Worksation, VirtualPC, VirtualBox, Qemu) virtual environments

So I am learning.

I don't have a clear need to develop on one or the other - I usally develop on the clients' machines anyway. I use my machine for admin stuff, prototyping, demos and running these VMs that other people give me. Our software is hard to install and configure, so the VMs are preconfigured environments for learning or PoT purposes.