Dual Boot Or Virtualisation?

I am starting to think about how to configure my machine when 11.0 arrives.

I hardly ever use XP these days, just for the few applications I can't get to work under Linux (TV card in particular - see other posts!!)

I have always dual-booted XP and openSuSE, but would virtualisation be better? What are the pros and cons?

I would appreciate any thoughts on the subject.

Pro: You don't need to reboot and can have both systems up at the same time, say, one in each virtual desktop.
There's a feature (in Virtualbox at least) called seamless windows that mixes windows from both systems. Nice

Con: No 3D support.

If you're into gaming then you may need to keep a native install of windows.

You could start off by dual booting. Then install a virtual windows session on your Linux. If after some time you find you do not need the separate MS-Windows boot, then simply reformat that MS-Windows partition, and mount it under /home/user-name/data (and remove the Windows boot from your /boot/grub/menu.lst, and modify your /etc/fstab as appropriate), ... or something like that. ie. you don't have to decide now. ... but can decide later.

I keep my Operating Systems on separate Hard Drives -- just-in-case of an emergency, I can always boot the other OS. If I had just one OS and boot the other in VM, that could be problematic. It really depends on the individual and what you need.

Thanks, everyone.

I think I'll just give it a try, and see what happens!

I virtualize. Usually I only need to run a few apps that don't sit well with wine, and if I virtualize, I don't need to reboot every time I need to run an app.
As an added bonus, I don't need to give Windows a lot of space; I can set up networking, connect to my samba share where the app is located, and run it right off the samba share.
So far it's works pretty well for me, and I don't really have any complaints.

I play my games through wine, although I can't really say it's a painless work around. Personally, if I had the space and the time, I would go for a dual boot for gaming, but things being as they are, my summer is reserved for other tasks that I never have time for during school.

I keep my Operating Systems on separate Hard Drives -- just-in-case of an emergency, I can always boot the other OS. If I had just one OS and boot the other in VM, that could be problematic. It really depends on the individual and what you need.
[/b]

Another alternative for emergencies, especially if you only have 1 harddrive, is to keep a livecd nearby. Suggestions for livecd's - openSuse (or your main distro's livecd) , parted magic, systemrescuecd or **** small linux.

I prefer slax over other live distro's, mainly because you can customize it to your liking. You can even make driver modules so that the livecd support all of your hardware.
However, the site is still being worked on, so there might be a few things missing.

Virtualization is a good solution but the TS spoke about using windows for a TV Card. That one will not be working in the virtual pc.