So all the bad things about Vista (excessive shut down times, file transfer problems, clunky slow operation, the need for excessive amounts of RAM, etc.) go away? Just like that?
> So all the bad things about Vista (excessive shut down times, file transfer problems, clunky slow operation, the need for excessive amounts of RAM, etc.) go away? Just like that?
Fair questions.
You're still stuck with the overhead of Vista. On the other hand, you're not dealing with it at the "user" level, you're dealing far below the surface.
In a VM, all the normal user file operations take place in the monolithic "virtual disk file" of the VM. So most of the nasty overhead of Vista's file handling is invisible because Vista just thinks you're updating a big single file (the virtual "disk"), and NTFS is pretty good at that.
The RAM question... well, when I run a VM on Vista I allocate as much of the RAM for the VM as I can get away with. I don't try with less than 2GB total, and more is better.
Did you notice that 4GB is now $150? RAM is cheap. Don't sweat RAM. Get lots and don't look back.