This morning I planned to spend some time at the co-working site. After reviewing the work before me, I decided to stay at home. Some things are possible at the co-working site, and some tasks are better at the co-working site, but some are best (and some possible only) at my home systems. So pragmatism ruled!
I attempted to use Microsoft's Virtual PC. The package is interesting: it's not a Windows Application. Instead of installing as a regular application, it merges into Windows. There is no entry in the "Installed Programs" list for Virtual PC. Shades of the old "Internet Explorer is part of Windows and cannot be removed" argument.
Despite it's merging into Windows, installing the thing is not particularly easy. You have to find the download site, then specify the version of your operating system (Home, Pro, or Enterprise) and the word size (32-bit or 64-bit), and the language. And then you have to go through a little ActiveX dance to ensure your Windows is genuine. Only then can you install it. And after installation do you learn that Virtual PC is fussy about hardware and requires hardware support for virtualization. When I ran it, it did nothing but display a little dialog that says, effectively, "I won't run, because your hardware is lame". And then you learn that you cannot un-install the beast.
Oracle's Virtualbox, in contrast, was easy to install and as a bonus it actually works. While Microsoft's Virtual PC supports Windows guests and only Windows guests, Virtualbox lets you run just about anything as a guest. So my experiments with virtualization can start.
I had lunch with former co-worker Don today, at the local burrito place. It was a good lunch and we talked about several things. At the (old) office, things have changed little.
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