One last OS post (it's getting old, I know:))

Okay, here's the last post on this, then I'm off to find something else interesting to talk about.

I have come upon a use for this technology for the "normal" user (i.e. somebody who just wants the dang thing to work and do what it's supposed to do).

Imagine you are a Windows user. Lots of issues with virus', spyware, things that make your OS go "poof" no good. (I reiterate, Windows is actually a fairly secure piece of software, if you don't strip the security like most users do). Okay, now imagine you have this new VT technology on your machine. You can make a pristine system as a backup, say use 1/3 of your hard drive. Use a copy of said pristine system. When something goes caphlooey (sp?), you just make a new copy of your old pristine system and you are back up and running that fast. Figure on a backup from the "used" machine to the pristine machine once a week (hell, set it automatically and have it back up once a day). That way it's just a few steps from where you really want it (i.e. you don't lose some specific tweak to a setting you just made).

The same can be said for Mac or Linux, but for those systems it would be more valuable when you are upgrading OS's (say Mac from Jaguar to Tiger or whatever Thundercat is next, say OpenSuSE Linux from 10.0 to 10.1). That way if the new system OS accidentally/purposely screws with some of your settings, you can go back to your old machine and function until you can figure out how to get it not to do the screwing of your settings (you would do the new OS on a seperate virtual machine, allowing you to save your old machine).

I also see it as a great way to test stuff. I could test different distro's of Linux to see what one is easiest to use, without having to do all of the crap I have to do now (I'd actually like to build a system for friends if I can get one friendly enough, so they could see what it is like without too many headaches).

And I really would like to see Mac on a box other than Apple hardware. It's a great OS, it really is. It just works, like I said in my last post. I just have a lot of trouble justifying the additional cost of the hardware. The Mac is really not going to be much different anymore from IBM boxes with the new Intel chips. And, with Mac supporting the OpenSource community in their round about fashion, I believe I need to at least back that up a little bit. (Darwin is Mac OS X's developer's OS and is completely free...it's basically Mac OS X minus some of the features that make the Mac you buy down the street so dang user friendly. But most developer's don't need the bells and whistles, they need something to write code in.)

And there are hackers getting Mac OS to work on an IBM compatible as we speak, and that leads to my next post -- software infringement.