I'm not a Windows fan. I'm not a Linux fan. I'm (really) not a OS X fan. I'm a fan of getting things done, on whatever OS, software, hardware I have available that won't make me break something out of aggravation. So to say that my Dream OS setup starts with a foundation of Linux is not supposed to tell you something about my software alliance. Instead, of worrying about which side of the fence I sit on, let's just take a look at how I dream about the future of Operating Systems that includes them all.

My Dream OS is to have a root OS that is nothing but hardware hooks and the ability to launch a Virtual Server Program to install, and mount other Virtual OS's. Up as many cores as your CPU happens to have. And while many will say, "But you can get a lot of use out of a good single core for multiple Virtual OS's." And you are right, but not for what I do. And since multi-core programming is going to take awhile to be awesome, lets put the cores we have to better use by separating them. Which is not to say my Dream OS couldn't pass a few spare cycles around to the idle cores.

I would have any of the following four OS's active at all times under this situation: Linux (Fedora 8), Windows XP (for Photoshop/Flash), Windows Vista (for treating the new new Windows Bugs), Mac OS X Tiger, and Mac OS X). I already run all of these OSs on their own computers, except Leopard (currently anyway). But it is tedious to find suitable, comfortable places for them all, using sluggish remote desktop clients, and of course, otherwise, having 4+ keyboards/nice. Not to mention, nowadays, any serious developer has a computer wildly more powerful than he technically ever needs in a day to day environment.

For reference, my CPU is an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6660 @ 2.40 GHz, and I've got 4GB plugged in with 12GB lying around in case my dream ever comes true. Combine the 512 x1900xt ATI Radeon with the Crossfire Board built for the Q6600 and you've got a lovely machine. Not the exact best, but definitely hanging out with some influence at the popular table.

My Dream OS would follow this pattern: Each Virtual OS would get a core of the CPU for itself, and each OS would get 4gb to play with entirely separate. And all four would exist on a monitor of their own (you have to ask if I have that many?), and the active OS would be determined by which monitor the mouse was in. All four would run at the same time, that's the important part.

In real life, this hasn't happened yet. And I don't have the low-level programming skills to pull this off. So I'm stuck with other methods. Luckily, it work with Linux and VirtualBox [virtualbox.org] (an open source version of VMWare [vmware.com]). What's more, you don't need a Server and a Player (the two of which conflict on Fedora), only the VirtualBox program. What's even more, it works very, very well.

The image here shows my root OS of Fedora running Virtuals of XP and Vista side by side. At the bottom right of the screen are are system graphics for CPU, Memory, and Network (I was downloading at the time). My memory was completely full because all three OS's had harvested it up to about 1gb a piece and the rest of in cache. I'm okay with that. You'll just have to take my word that all three perform as can be expected if they were installed as the Root OS. An additional benefits of having XP and Vista installed as Virtual OS is that they both boot in less than twenty seconds because all the "hardware" information is returned instantly and they don't have to sit around and wait for the system to respond piece by piece.

Because getting multiple monitors to work on Linux is akin to getting a Mac program to work on Windows, I haven't done that yet, but with Fedora Workspaces, I can at least give them each their own desktop and be able to switch to the one I want with ease. You can see the Workspace bar on the picture above on the second panel.

In the end, I'm pretty happy with the setup, I can now test my software on three major OS's without moving or rebooting. And since my Mac Mini is securely fastened to my main computer (with velcro command strips), I have set up a KVM switch that also uses my usb keyboard/mouse. So I can use all four OS's from one computer station without getting up and without using lagging remote clients.