jonLast night, I made the best decision of my computing life, ever.
Old Setup:
- Two desktop machines under my desk, two 24” LCD monitors, controlled by one keyboard and mouse via Synergy
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Main computer was Windows XP 32-bit Core2 Quad 8200 4GB RAM (2.8GB usable after OS and video card reserved)
- Primary uses were general browsing, word processing, gaming (Starcraft 2, WoW, Diablo 3), organizing and uploading photos (Picasa + Flickr), IE-only testing, some coding
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Secondary computer was Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit Core2 Quad 6600 6GB RAM
- Ran 4 Ubuntu VMs in VirtualBox for various development and ghetto dynamic DNS hosting during the days before I rented my current VPS from Linode
- MacBook Air that I would use when working outside of my home office or lounging in the living room
Transition to New Setup:
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Transferred the VMs onto my main computer–turns out that I really only need 2 of the 4.
- The problem I had before was that the Core2 Quad 8200 doesn’t have Virtualization Technology enabled, so it can’t emulate 64-bit VMs even if the host machine is 64-bit, so I had to run it on the Core2 Quad 6600. Now, I only need 2 32-bit VMs that will run fine on the C2Q 8200.
- Decommissioned the Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit, pulled out 2x2GB and stuck it in the main computer for 8GB RAM total
- Install Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64-bit on the main computer, can still dual-boot into Windows if I want to
- Connect MacBook Air with USB hub and video dongle to secondary monitor
Thoughts So Far:
It feels good. It feels REALLY good.
Since I’ve been using Ubuntu for over 6 years now, it feels really comfortable. In the past, I had run Ubuntu exclusively on several machines, including netbooks like Dell Inspiron Mini 9 and Samsung Series 5 Chromebook.