Ask HN: Does the following system exist?

6 points by samstave 12y ago ↗ HN

I want to have a laptop that runs as a hypervisor. I want to be able to run VMs on the hypervisor and be able to fast-switch desktops between these VMs. Basically hitting CTRL+ALT+F2 to switch to a windows VM - where the screen and KB are available to it, and CTRL+ALT+F3 to get to, say a linux VM.

Obviously - there are some HW changes that need to occur... but is there a machine/method for doing this?

I dont want t run a full OS with KVM/VirtBox where I run a VM in a window.

Suggestions?

2 comments

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hamgra 12y ago ↗

There's the VMWare hypervisor. I think the hypervisor by itself is free, and can be used as a base OS, /iff/ it works on your hardware. https://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere-hypervisor/ You probably have to register an account, but afaik that product itself is free.

patio11 12y ago ↗

Is this being motivated by "I just want a really efficient way to switch between desktops in different OSes?" If so, VMWare Workstation in full-screen mode is a configurable key chord (Ctrl-Alt, Alt-Tab) away from the host OS. I use Windows 7 as host (on a midline Dell laptop) and Ubuntu something-or-other in the VM. This is my primary dev environment and works great for my purposes.

There's also a Unity option, where they just put (e.g.) Linux apps as first-class windows within Windows, but the UX of it hurts my head.

If, on the other hand, you're e.g. worried about the performance hit to the VM given that the host OS is constantly running, then this won't help you.