[Phillip Dyson]

I recently had an oppurtunity to gain some experience into the world of virtualization when my I discovered that my work VPN software was incompatible with my 64bit Vista. My solution was to install Sun's Virtualbox and run a 32bit Vista inside. Which was great because I was able to isolate all of my work specific configurations into one place. And in theory its portable as virtual machines go.

Today I found out that Microsoft is distributing their Exchange Server 2010 RC installed on a virtual hard drive compatible with their product Virtual PC. {via Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrot on the Windows Weekly podcast}

It got me to thinking...

1. Could this be a viable solution for distributing software applications as virtual appliances? Wouldn't it be great to be able to just download a Linux Distro in a Virtualbox vm and boot it up on my box? Perhaps with a HTPC app already installed ready to configure.

2. Is there an oppurtunity to us more Virtualization in the home? Like setting up a VM with Live Sync and some cloud backup software to receive files from my network (Live Sync) and back them up to the cloud . Just wondering what others thought.

I know that some of you out there run you business from your home (looking at Jason), I'm wondering if you've had any use virtualization.

And also I thought it might make for some interesting discussion and light thinking.

[Phillip Dyson]

I recently had an oppurtunity to gain some experience into the world of virtualization when my I discovered that my work VPN software was incompatible with my 64bit Vista. My solution was to install Sun's Virtualbox and run a 32bit Vista inside. Which was great because I was able to isolate all of my work specific configurations into one place. And in theory its portable as virtual machines go.

Today I found out that Microsoft is distributing their Exchange Server 2010 RC installed on a virtual hard drive compatible with their product Virtual PC. {via Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrot on the Windows Weekly podcast}

It got me to thinking...

1. Could this be a viable solution for distributing software applications as virtual appliances? Wouldn't it be great to be able to just download a Linux Distro in a Virtualbox vm and boot it up on my box? Perhaps with a HTPC app already installed ready to configure.

2. Is there an oppurtunity to us more Virtualization in the home? Like setting up a VM with Live Sync and some cloud backup software to receive files from my network (Live Sync) and back them up to the cloud . Just wondering what others thought.

I know that some of you out there run you business from your home (looking at Jason), I'm wondering if you've had any use virtualization.

And also I thought it might make for some interesting discussion and light thinking.

[doogald]

VMWare has distributed pre-formed VM appliances for years now, actually.

Check 'em out.. If you want to check out a Linux distro, for example, and are already using VMWare you can download one and start using it right away. Pretty cool.