I will be getting a Windows 7 machine at work soon. I want some of the software that Windows offers (i.e. Office, iTunes), but I develop software in Linux. Should I install Linux on a virtual machine with Windows 7 as the host (either via Windows own software or VirtualBox), or should I install a Linux partition and run Windows 7 in a virtual machine, with Linux as the host (assuming I have the Windows 7 disk)? Is the latter even possible?
On the Linux side I'll be running OpenSuSE 11.2 and above, and the software I'm developing uses OpenGL and the Qt SDK.
As mentioned earlier, on the Windows side I'll be running Office and iTunes primarily.
I can do web-browsing on either.
Answer
Your best bet is to run Windows in the VM - Office is not resource consuming, and iTunes if you are only using it for music (not videos!) runs perfectly fine in the VM.
On the other hand, your development needs means you need straight on access to the OpenGL layer without going through another VM layer, and compiling will definitely be faster if it's done on the host layer.
So, based on your needs, it's definitely a Windows VM on a Linux host.
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