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I learned my lesson long ago. Linux is for VMs. I run vanilla Windows as my boot OS and then use Linux from within a VM, thus getting the benefits of Windows

I learned my lesson long ago. Linux is for VMs. I run vanilla Windows as my boot OS and then use Linux from within a VM, thus getting the benefits of Windows hardware compatibility where I need it. This lets me do things like run nine monitors when my laptop is docked by chaining DisplayLink adapters. Note that Windows with DisplayLink will only support eight monitors so for the ninth I bind the DisplayLink adapter to the VM for dual monitors with my Linux VM. Going above more than two monitors with a Linux host OS is akin to beating one's head into a wall, especially if you move between monitor configurations often, but just works in Windows. Thus far, with the ability for the VM to bind specific hardware directly and not shared via the host OS I get all the benefits of a Linux host OS without the hassle of broken driver implementations taking me down for long stretches at a time. As an example, I can bind my ALFA WiFi adapter directly to the Linux VM and run aircrack-ng all day long. Yes, there are drawbacks. You will need a bigger hard-drive (best if you can fit two in your laptop) and more memory, but those are cheap these days. The benefits, however are massive. I keep multiple VM versions and can instantly recover from anything stupid that I might do in the Linux kernel without impacting my ability to actually get my work done.

dm2 13y ago
I do the same thing, it works well. Do you use Windows 7 or 8 as your parent OS? I use VirtualBox and have found it reliable for years. The Windows host OS can then be kept very clean and it remains fast and relatively secure. Then in those rare instances when you need to download something insecure or that you don't want cluttering your Windows install you can put it in a virtual machine that acts as a sandbox. If you organize your files right you can even wipe your windows partition and reinstall with very little downtime and setup (other than the several gigs of updates that will be needed during the first few boots).
- patcheudor 13y ago
  I ran into some odd problems with the DisplayLink drivers after a couple years of success in Win 7 so I recently made the jump to Win 8.1. Most of my real work happens in my VM's so I don't mind it. My laptop has two 500 GB SSD's and has room for two more drives via mSATA cards. When I run out of room for VMs I'll go ahead and start populating the mSATA slots. I recently picked up a USB 3.0 256GB thumb drive and use it for VM portability between machines so I can leave my big laptop docked at work & take a lighter one on business trips. And yeah - you are right about very little downtime when reinstalling stuff. While my peers will be out for a week because of an OS or hardware failure I can be up and running again in no time at all.
jmnicolas 13y ago
9 monitors ? May I ask what you use them for ?
- patcheudor 13y ago
  I figured someone would ask. I do a fair amount of pen testing in addition to development. Because I work with a lot of hardware solutions I need to run multiple instances of my tools. In a typical assessment I'll have a VM running a raw packet capture & another running an HTTP interception proxy. These will be "watching" the hardware device. I'll then replicate that same configuration to watch host browser traffic. Right there I'm at four monitors just to watch my instrumentation. I'm at a fifth for the web browser to interact with the environment & a sixth for taking notes. I typically like to have a chat going with other members of the team as well as e-mail so that's seven right there. Many time's I'll need to write rules for on the fly packet manipulation so now I'm at a solid eight. If I must also instrument the server side then I start compromising on having e-mail open. For years I dealt with alt-tab between windows as well as using various windows managers so I could have multiple desktops but the problem was that I couldn't have eye's on what was going on in the instrumentation. This setup saves me a massive amount of time. Here's a picture with two additional monitors mounted to the wall next to my desk which are connected to another system I use: http://www.defaultstore.com/mydesk.jpg http://www.defaultstore.com/mydesk.jpg
  - will_work4tears 13y ago
    Wow, that's pretty impressive. I take it you are in the Seattle area then, with that Windows 8 screen on your laptop? That's what mine defaulted to and I'm in the area.
    - patcheudor 13y ago
      I'm in the NW but not Seattle. I think that's just its default. That's an HP ElitePad sitting on a doc not connected to any monitors. That particular day I'd just re-installed the OS to take a look at the TPM.
yulaow 13y ago
I have the problem that in my windows os I need to run hyper-v to use the emulator of windowsphone and windowstablets for work purposes. Why is it a problem? Because if you active hyper-v (and you need a reboot to change from active/deactive) all other VM, if started, will crash your os, show a blue page of death, restart your machine and show a "I am trying to recover your system" for like 20 minutes. And hyperv is like the shittest VMm ever to run linux over it, also with the "officially supported" linux versions.
- bananas 13y ago
  Hyper-V user here. It's fine - I run 12-15 VMs (4 of which are Linux) at a time (full production environment with virtual networking) on a 4 year old Dell T3500 Quad Xeon with 32Gb of RAM. Sounds like your hardware is broken/crap.
  - tanzam75 13y ago
    Hardware problem often means driver problem. When you have Hyper-V installed, you have to be exceptionally careful about what drivers you have installed. I've even seen a Bluetooth driver bluescreen the management OS when Hyper-V was enabled. This is just the nature of hypervisors. Most drivers are only tested on an OS that's running directly against the hardware. Run them through a hypervisor, and their behavior becomes unpredictable. Ultimately, Hyper-V is a hypervisor, and it competes against ESX -- not VMWare Workstation. That's why it's best run on workstation-class or server-class hardware. Basically, situations where the hardware vendor might actually keep the drivers up-to-date. On consumer-level hardware, it's a crapshoot.
    - bananas 13y ago
      Yeah which is why if you're doing serious shit with Windows you buy either: 1. Thinkpad T or W series 2. Dell Precision 3. HP Z-series. Nothing else is worth throwing any money at all unless it's for facebook or pr0n usage (consumer).
  - vetinari 13y ago
kyriakos 13y ago
out of curiosity what kind of work do you do with 9 monitors?
- patcheudor 13y ago
  Security researcher.
drdaeman 13y ago
Have you considered/tried using hypervisor and putting Windows in VM, too? If so, what were drawbacks? I ask because, considering popularity of Windows as malware/spyware target, running it as bare-metal host OS doesn't sound like a completely good idea to me, even if owner's really cautious.
- pjmlp 13y ago
  If you use Hyper-V, Windows is already running in a VM as well.

dm2 13y ago

I do the same thing, it works well. Do you use Windows 7 or 8 as your parent OS? I use VirtualBox and have found it reliable for years. The Windows host OS can then be kept very clean and it remains fast and relatively secure. Then in those rare instances when you need to download something insecure or that you don't want cluttering your Windows install you can put it in a virtual machine that acts as a sandbox. If you organize your files right you can even wipe your windows partition and reinstall with very little downtime and setup (other than the several gigs of updates that will be needed during the first few boots).

patcheudor 13y ago
I ran into some odd problems with the DisplayLink drivers after a couple years of success in Win 7 so I recently made the jump to Win 8.1. Most of my real work happens in my VM's so I don't mind it. My laptop has two 500 GB SSD's and has room for two more drives via mSATA cards. When I run out of room for VMs I'll go ahead and start populating the mSATA slots. I recently picked up a USB 3.0 256GB thumb drive and use it for VM portability between machines so I can leave my big laptop docked at work & take a lighter one on business trips. And yeah - you are right about very little downtime when reinstalling stuff. While my peers will be out for a week because of an OS or hardware failure I can be up and running again in no time at all.

jmnicolas 13y ago

9 monitors ? May I ask what you use them for ?

patcheudor 13y ago
I figured someone would ask. I do a fair amount of pen testing in addition to development. Because I work with a lot of hardware solutions I need to run multiple instances of my tools. In a typical assessment I'll have a VM running a raw packet capture & another running an HTTP interception proxy. These will be "watching" the hardware device. I'll then replicate that same configuration to watch host browser traffic. Right there I'm at four monitors just to watch my instrumentation. I'm at a fifth for the web browser to interact with the environment & a sixth for taking notes. I typically like to have a chat going with other members of the team as well as e-mail so that's seven right there. Many time's I'll need to write rules for on the fly packet manipulation so now I'm at a solid eight. If I must also instrument the server side then I start compromising on having e-mail open. For years I dealt with alt-tab between windows as well as using various windows managers so I could have multiple desktops but the problem was that I couldn't have eye's on what was going on in the instrumentation. This setup saves me a massive amount of time. Here's a picture with two additional monitors mounted to the wall next to my desk which are connected to another system I use: http://www.defaultstore.com/mydesk.jpg http://www.defaultstore.com/mydesk.jpg
- will_work4tears 13y ago
  Wow, that's pretty impressive. I take it you are in the Seattle area then, with that Windows 8 screen on your laptop? That's what mine defaulted to and I'm in the area.
  - patcheudor 13y ago
    I'm in the NW but not Seattle. I think that's just its default. That's an HP ElitePad sitting on a doc not connected to any monitors. That particular day I'd just re-installed the OS to take a look at the TPM.

yulaow 13y ago

I have the problem that in my windows os I need to run hyper-v to use the emulator of windowsphone and windowstablets for work purposes. Why is it a problem? Because if you active hyper-v (and you need a reboot to change from active/deactive) all other VM, if started, will crash your os, show a blue page of death, restart your machine and show a "I am trying to recover your system" for like 20 minutes. And hyperv is like the shittest VMm ever to run linux over it, also with the "officially supported" linux versions.

bananas 13y ago
Hyper-V user here. It's fine - I run 12-15 VMs (4 of which are Linux) at a time (full production environment with virtual networking) on a 4 year old Dell T3500 Quad Xeon with 32Gb of RAM. Sounds like your hardware is broken/crap.
- tanzam75 13y ago
  Hardware problem often means driver problem. When you have Hyper-V installed, you have to be exceptionally careful about what drivers you have installed. I've even seen a Bluetooth driver bluescreen the management OS when Hyper-V was enabled. This is just the nature of hypervisors. Most drivers are only tested on an OS that's running directly against the hardware. Run them through a hypervisor, and their behavior becomes unpredictable. Ultimately, Hyper-V is a hypervisor, and it competes against ESX -- not VMWare Workstation. That's why it's best run on workstation-class or server-class hardware. Basically, situations where the hardware vendor might actually keep the drivers up-to-date. On consumer-level hardware, it's a crapshoot.
  - bananas 13y ago
    Yeah which is why if you're doing serious shit with Windows you buy either: 1. Thinkpad T or W series 2. Dell Precision 3. HP Z-series. Nothing else is worth throwing any money at all unless it's for facebook or pr0n usage (consumer).
- vetinari 13y ago

kyriakos 13y ago

out of curiosity what kind of work do you do with 9 monitors?

patcheudor 13y ago
Security researcher.

drdaeman 13y ago

Have you considered/tried using hypervisor and putting Windows in VM, too? If so, what were drawbacks? I ask because, considering popularity of Windows as malware/spyware target, running it as bare-metal host OS doesn't sound like a completely good idea to me, even if owner's really cautious.

pjmlp 13y ago
If you use Hyper-V, Windows is already running in a VM as well.