Does anyone have a strategy for avoiding Vista?
Yeah. Get a Mac.
While this suggestion was offered in jest (and got stomped
on by some humorless Windows types), I'd like to point out
that it is potentially a real solution to Tom's problem.
I occasionally run either Windows 98 or 2000, or one of
two flavors of Linux on my MacBook Pro using Parallels
virtualization software. The OSes run at near native speed
when I use them, and I can suspend a virtual machine and
resume it at the point where I left it whenever I want. I can
also bookmark the state of the VM at some point of time (or
as many points in time as I want), and go back to an earlier
state if I discover that I need to.
Intel Macs have a variety of virtualization software options
(I know of Parallels, VMware, VirtualBox and QEMU).
Parallels and VMware appear to share the most features,
and have modes that lets it appear as if the guest OS is
running the machine instead of running in its own window,
and they have tools that let you clone a real hard disk into
your VM, making it easy to keep using a specialized configuration
without having to recreate it from scratch. I don't know if
VirtualBox or QEMU can do this directly, but they can use
use VMs created by VMware, so there is a potential migration
path. My experience with parallels is that it can accommodate
most common hardware, so as long as the problem is with
older software but not unusual hardware, virtualization could
certainly be an answer.
VMware and VirtualBox also have versions that run on top of
Windows or Linux, so you don't really have to get a Mac.
VirtualBox is mostly free, and Parallels and VMware have free
trial periods.
David
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