I see people doing it, so there must be something I'm missing. I've already got multiple machines with multiple OSs, why do I need to virtualize any of them?
Hoping for light, not heat. Regards.
No heat from me about this. ;-)
I see VMs as a tool that can be used in a lot of different ways. Let me set forth a few scenerios, that might shed some light for you.
- The example I gave earlier. You'd like to play around with some new software. Don't really want to install it on your current box because it might not peacefully coexist with other software you have. If you have a VM built for this type of thing, you can fire it up, do whatever testing you want, and blow it away when you're done. Normally, when I build a new VM, once I get things set up the way I want them, I shut ot down, then zip up the VM directory into a zip file that I consider a 'known good' (KG) state. If, down the road I do something with the VM that I don't want to keep, I delete the existing VM, and unzip my KGimage, and I'm right back where I started.
- Using the same concepts above, I can have VMs available with different software versions on them for testing purposes. That is, on one computer, I can have a copy of IE5,6,7, and 8, all on separate VMs for software testing. Similarly, I can have a copy of XP, Win7, vista, Slackware, Redhat, or Kubuntu available to test out websites using muliple platforms and browsers.
- You can have a 'safe browsing' VM. Let's say you occasionally need to go to websites that you consider to be dodgy, like Democratic Underground. (I occasionally have to check out 'warez' sites when doing research on security issues.) You can have a VM that gets reset to a KG image each time it starts. Malware is no longer something you have to worry about, because it is automatically cleaned completely with each reboot. A VM like this can also be useful if you have kids. They can use a VM for their browsing, and it automatically gets wiped each time they start it up.
- Suppose you want to try something new. Any time I want to check out a new version of Fedora, Mint, Ubuntu, or slackware, I download the ISO, then install it on a VM so I can do a fairly thorough run-through before I decide whether or not I want to move forward with it.
- I have a VM that I use specifically for on-call. It has a VPN client set up so that if I'm out, at like, say, my father-in-law's house and it turns out that I need to do some work, I just pop a thumb drive on his PC, run the VM from VMware Player, do my work (with all my tools available right there), and when I'm done, close the program and pop the thumb drive out. This basically lets me travel with a computer in my pocket. (There's a joke there somewhere, but I"ll pass on it for the moment)
One last thing. I've really been suprised that more corporate-type software isn't sold as complete working VMs. Could you imagine what it would mean from a troubleshtooting perspective, if you could tell your customer "take a snapshot and sent it to us." You'd have absolute and complete control over the hardware, software, and many other aspects of the environment. I would think from a supportability standpoint it would be an absolute godsend. If you set things up properly, such that customer data resided on a separate disk, mounted to the VM at boot time, the customer would be protected against sending you confidential information as well.
I'm sure there are a lot of other use-cases, as varied as you could probably imagine. I can understand someone not really seeing the utility of virtualization. It depends a lot on how you use your computer. There may well not be any benefit fo you. Then again, there might just be a use that you've just not thought of yet.
Nice pitch on the value of virtualization for the average schlub. Thank you for taking the time. You sold me. I'd sort of heard all of that before, but it went in one ear and out the other. I especially liked the notion of "kid-proofing" a machine from malware. If I could get back all the hours...
So I installed VirtualBox from Oracle on my Ubuntu 11.10 box yesterday hoping to install XP to get to the one (count 'em) remaining program that I must use Billware to run.
For some reason I can't get the VM to see the local hard drive while it is attempting to install XP. I've mapped a drive and all and I expect that I'll work it out. Mumble. In the mean time I still have the crappy old laptop running AVR Studio 5 and nothing else. That's plenty safe too. Nobody wants to play with the decrepit old laptop.
I, for one, welcome our new SkyNet Overlords /.