Quote:
Originally Posted by Gregg Bell
Enjoyed the pun.  I've heard the virtual boxes are slow. |
It very much depends on how old your computer is, what processor and how much memory you have and how modern Windows you want to use inside the VM.
For quite a lot of stuff you just need Windows 2000. A W2k image in VirtualBox on a computer manufactured in the last 10 years is screaming fast.
You just need to select a different (not the default) chipset in VirtualBox to install W2k.
I used to have Hyperthreading Pentium 4 with 2GB RAM.
I needed to use MS Word to help my friend to format his book to a *very* specific demands of publisher.
At work I had MSOffice 2007. That bloody, ribbon-infested thing took longer to start on the computer with the same class of processor and the same amount of RAM than VirtualBox + W2k + MSOffice 2000 on Linux on my home computer. And I had full-blown lavish desktop with lots of effects running as a host.
At this moment I do not even have a VirtualBox with Windows on this machine at home. For many years I was multi-booting - FreeBSD, various Linux distros and other systems, plus Windows. Gradually I noticed I boot into Windows less and less. So I re-used my Windows partition and I set up VitrualBox (or was it Quemu?) - so my wife could use Windows-only interactive CD she needed for her English class.
Once I discovered a free [as a beer] AutoCAD clone Draft Sight for my needs, I lost the last reason to want to maintain Windows on my home machine.
Out of *numerous* computers in this household only one has Windows on it (purchased very cheap, second-hand, with sticker with Windows and MSOffice license), because I grew tired of explaining to teachers that my daughter will be handing her electronic homework in OpenOffice + PDF format, because I refuse to pirate Microsoft products AND I am *not* willing to pay for license just for very occasional homework in powerpoint. The computer gets booted once a month.
I DO have license for Windows for this notebook. I was looking forward to installing it to the VirtualBox, now that I have processor with 4 hyperthreading cores with direct support for virtual machines and enough RAM. But the license number for bloody Windows 8 for this notebook is burned into BIOS, so it is unusable in a virtual machine (without pissing against the wind) and dual-boot was complicated [at that time - I haven't investigated recently] because of W8 architecture - use of several partitions by default plus bloody UEFI. So I have upgraded Windows 8 to Mint Linux and I am very happy.
This Linux computer is also my main desktop and my main book-management system and I am very happy with it. Calibre runs *very* well on it. I do support Windows machines at work (besides many other things), so I can make an informed decision about what system I like more. For quite a few years I was happy FreeBSD user.
Disclaimer:
All the commenters in this thread have my very special permission to prefer and consider superior whatever system they wish