Virtualization.

[swestrup]

I've been thinking about virtualization all day as I've waited for various bits of important state to finish being copied off of the partition I'm going to format.

So, its beginning to seem like a worthwhile thing to try is to install Linux as a host operating system, install VirtualBox, and then install Windows XP on top of that. Since it won't be the native OS, I'll have snapshots I can fall back to if my Windows XP gets corrupted again.

I've decided on having some Linux as my Host OS because:

1. I think the performance penalty for running on top of Linux would be smaller than for running on top of Windows.
2. I can install a 64-bit Linux, which may gain me some speed, but would defintely gain me a 64-bit environment for testing my code in.
3. Linux is more resistant to viral attack, so if I end up using the Host system for work, I'm less likely to infect it somehow.

So, do folks agree/disagree with my points above? And if it IS a good idea to use a Linux as my Host system, which ones do folks recommend? I've had such uniform bad experiences with Live distros so far, that I don't trust my judgement as to which ones I should try a real install with.