VM's.. yeah.
tried VMware player, using the community images for a few linux distro's... Pretty stable, free, but you can't make your own images without VMware workstation (I think), so have to rely on ones in the community area. Speed wise, was OK but nothing to write home about.
VirtualPC, I had it running fine under XPpro, not tried on xpHome, but I'd be surprised if it didn't work. Seemed ok at hosting MS operating systems, and I believe it's ok with linux (look for the web for install help though), but I found it a little flakey. Not tried 2007, but I've heard it's pretty good.
Parallels, bought this just before xmas.
Currently running ubuntu, win2k, win98 and (as of last night) win95, all very successfully. I find it a lot faster than both of the others, and extremely stable. I've been using it extensively in my recent Cobra testing (used to use 2 other machines, both as dual boot), but the combination of the speed of the VM, and the fact it's running on the same machine have speeded up the testing process an awful lot.
The best thing of all (in my mind) is that once you get a config you like, you can save off a copy of the file, and pretty much swap it at will.. No formatting, no reinstalls.
eg. I've got a win2k config, which is a completely clean. I do a install, test then replace the clean win2k after.
tried VMware player, using the community images for a few linux distro's... Pretty stable, free, but you can't make your own images without VMware workstation (I think), so have to rely on ones in the community area. Speed wise, was OK but nothing to write home about.
VirtualPC, I had it running fine under XPpro, not tried on xpHome, but I'd be surprised if it didn't work. Seemed ok at hosting MS operating systems, and I believe it's ok with linux (look for the web for install help though), but I found it a little flakey. Not tried 2007, but I've heard it's pretty good.
Parallels, bought this just before xmas.
Currently running ubuntu, win2k, win98 and (as of last night) win95, all very successfully. I find it a lot faster than both of the others, and extremely stable. I've been using it extensively in my recent Cobra testing (used to use 2 other machines, both as dual boot), but the combination of the speed of the VM, and the fact it's running on the same machine have speeded up the testing process an awful lot.
The best thing of all (in my mind) is that once you get a config you like, you can save off a copy of the file, and pretty much swap it at will.. No formatting, no reinstalls.
eg. I've got a win2k config, which is a completely clean. I do a install, test then replace the clean win2k after.