[killermosquito]

I’m serious about learning about virtualization on a desktop PC. I don’t have a server. I’m also serious about disaster recovery and I’m thinking a mirrored drive might be the best form of RAID for my purposes.

I think my valid requirement to do virtualization is my desire to have on one PC multiple installations including:

Windows XP Pro with Office 2003
Windows XP Pro with Office 2007
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 with Office 2007
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 with Office 2010 (eventually)
Ubuntu with OpenOffice

I also do Microsft Office training both at a college and at a computer center. At the center I could potentially teach Office 2003 or 2007 so I would like to have access to both on my home PC since I use it to make and modify curriculum.

[Justa]

Ok then. I'd recommend installing Server 2008 R2 as the host OS since it natively has Hypervisor virtualization and advanced Remote Desktop support. Server 2008 R2 + Windows 7 + Office 2007 + Exchange 2003 are going to fully replace the 2003 platform combos so I recommend having this platform native to your setup and virtualize the rest. Understand your virtualization software options are going to run your software costs to several thousands of dollars. The MS Action Pack provides much reduced software costs for small businesses and may be helpful to you.

Otherwise it'll be a hodgepode of OS + VM ware virtualization and then you're missing the whole Server 2008 R2 platform possibilities while still having significant software costs.

[Justa]

Correction: Exchange 2010 will fully replace Exchange 2003 in enterprise environments.

[killermosquito]

Thank you all for giving me so much to think about! Especially usconservative...WOW! Your post was amazing!

Freepers are the best.