Since I’m a contract developer, I work for many different clients. That means, I need many different work environments. The simplest solution to this, is to use Virtual Machines.
I used to use VMWare. Now that I have a TechNet subscription, I’m playing with Virtual PC 2007. So far, it works pretty well. Very similar to VMware.
I’ll be researching tips on how to keep the VM’s as small as possible, yet still fast. I plan on setting up a base Windows XP with SP3, and then copy that as my starting point for each client. It’s rare that I use any OS other than XP.
I will make a VM of Ubuntu though. I want to play with that some more, and I don’t want to dual-boot at this point.
Note: To get the Virtual PC to release your mouse, hit the [hostkey]. By default, this is the Right Alt.
There are more Virtual PC Tips here.