Macgasm

As a huge nerd, I understand the urge to tool around with other operating systems. Recently, I used Sun’s VirtualBox virtual machine to run the latest version of Ubuntu. Other people choose to run Windows in Parallels or VMWare Fusion. It is very enticing, but I’m here to tell you that it isn’t worth the hassle for most people.

Most people don’t keep their main operating system completely up to date. The first thing I do when people ask for tech support is make sure that they run the updater in their operating system. Then, I go through and make sure their apps are up to date as well. When you run a second operating system in a virtual machine, you’re dramatically increasing the complexity. You have to worry about keeping your host operating system, your virtual machine software, and your guest operating system working smoothly. I don’t envy that.

There are some good reasons for running another operating system. Sometimes you need to run an application that just doesn’t exist for Mac OS X. That’s fine, but I really only recommend doing this if you are technically adept. I wouldn’t want my mother or my grandmother trying to figure out something as complex as virtualization.

Photo Credit: rickharris

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