I’ve been using virtual machine technology for many years, and today I think I would be hard pressed to live without it. Since I test many different software packages, operating systems, environments and try out and test different systems. Without virtual machine technology this would be very difficult, with it, it’s incredibly easy.

I use lots of different types of virtual machine technology - I have a permanent Windows Server 2003/Microsoft Virtual Server installation that runs six different operating systems which I use as my ’sandbox’ - I have a second a Windows Server 2003 installation, Gentoo, NetBSD, Fedora, CentOS, Solaris 11 and Windows XP. I then also have a number of ‘pre-configured’ VMs which I can execute on a desktop VirtualPC solution when I need to. In addition some some standard environments, I also have specific applications sets - for example a Rational development platform for my IBM work, and a test environment for mail servers (for SPAM/Virus removal).

On a Linux desktop, I VMware to play with Linux environments, and a Sun Ultra 60 enables me to play with Solaris Zones.

All of them have their advantages, and their disadvantages and problems.

Originally I was going to cover all of this in a book, but I decided the scope (and long term usability) of the book format were not really suitable for an area of computing which is constantly evolving, so I created this website.

It’s early stages yet - and I still have to map out the content of the site beyond my original book plan - but stay tuned, and we’ll start looking at virtual computing in more detail soon.

For more details on the exact content of the site see the About page. Or just stay subscribed.