[srazzaque]

> At home, I no longer dual-boot because I vm.

Curious, do you have a Windows host and Linux guest(s)? Or the other way around?

I currently have Linux as my primary with a Windows guest OS for when I need it (e.g. Office - I actually think Excel is great - or if I'm doing any Win32/C++ dev). But, I'm thinking of doing it the other way around on my next PC.

[bitsandboots]

Windows host, because I play VR games and GPU passthrough would be inconvenient.

I just fullscreen the linux VM and it feels native for all the non-3D tasks I do with it. Even media viewing is a breeze.

[vundercind]

My experience has been that Linux is significantly more stable under a VM on Windows or Mac than directly on all but the most conservative hardware. Fewer weird multimedia glitches, no needing to involve any part of the Linux wireless stack of any kind (Bluetooth especially, but also WiFi), fewer video driver issues, fewer program or windowing system crashes.

[pjmlp]

Because the virtual hardware is a more stable surface, than the plethora of hardware Linux is supposed to run on.

That is what I have been doing since hardware virtualization became mainstream.

[skydhash]

Currently doing the same with macOS as the host. Still have the nice apps but with a better dev platform.

[rewgs]

Doing the same thing, it's fantastic.

[bitsandboots]

I know, I've nearly forgotten all compatibility woes!

When I made my linux vm, I actually just took a real linux system's drive and told vmware to just use the drive as-is.

So, it was really convenient to no longer have to deal with driver nonsense, while retaining the original disk.

[srazzaque]

Makes sense!

What's the current best virtualisation software on Windows in your opinion?

I tried searching online for this. And quickly realised that highly ranked sites targeting Windows users are quite low quality.

[bitsandboots]

Sadly, vmware, which scares me now that broadcom owns it. It's had the best balance of seamless + good-enough graphics performance (for media, not games)

My personal rank is

vmware

virtualbox

qemu

I never tried hyper-v by itself. vmware actually can use hyper-v as a hypervisor if its enabled (as you need it when using WSL), but its inferior to using vmware's own solution, as I end up with weird networking behavior. it does work though.

I think on linux qemu may be the best, but on windows it is rough. I think vmware just has better video technology and better integration technology, such that its easy to copy-paste files, share clipboards, full screen etc.