04-05-2008, 04:00 AM
Concillian: you only need to restart the components that have had opened or mapped files updated. Everything else can be left running.
The limitations should be even less troublesome as time goes on. Many modern CPUs have hardware virtualization support, which lets the user run guest operating systems at near native speeds. The KVM project distributes a modified QEMU to take advantage of VT/SVM extensions. With it, you can run a Windows guest on Linux without rebooting. KVM is Free, so your only cost would be the Windows license and fees for whatever Windows-only software you wanted -- costs you'd incur with Windows-on-hardware anyway!:) Caveat: programs which require hardware assistance (e.g. 3D intensive games) may perform poorly under virtualization, at least until that hardware is virtualization-aware.
The limitations should be even less troublesome as time goes on. Many modern CPUs have hardware virtualization support, which lets the user run guest operating systems at near native speeds. The KVM project distributes a modified QEMU to take advantage of VT/SVM extensions. With it, you can run a Windows guest on Linux without rebooting. KVM is Free, so your only cost would be the Windows license and fees for whatever Windows-only software you wanted -- costs you'd incur with Windows-on-hardware anyway!:) Caveat: programs which require hardware assistance (e.g. 3D intensive games) may perform poorly under virtualization, at least until that hardware is virtualization-aware.