Linux economics (was Re: [TriLUG] Win4Lin)

[Corey Mutter]

My $0.02 in the discussion on VMWare vs. Win4Lin vs. 2 machines:

My favorite choice (and I've used this in various places of work) is
to have 2 machines, with the Linux machine being headless (they handle
this much better than Windows machines) and only accessed over the
network. 

You can set up the kernel to use a serial port as a console, and lilo
to use the serial port, so the only time you ever need attach a
display is when you need to mess with the BIOS setup (even if you're
changing kernels).

I tend to use command-line stuff most of the time, so PuTTY on the
Windows box makes a good client. For occasional X usage, XFree86
running on Cygwin works well and is free. For heavier X use, there's
always Hummingbird Exceed (though that's probably more expensive than
VMWare, unless your company happens to have extra licenses :-)

Corey (mailing from the headless machine :-)