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From: Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Subject: Re: All VM-based development
Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2025 01:09:55 -0700
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On 1/9/2025 8:44 PM, bitrex wrote:
> On 1/9/2025 9:54 PM, Don Y wrote:
>> Has anyone tried moving entirely to VM-based systems for
>> their (hardware/software/documentation) development efforts?
>> Admittedly, there is a bit of a performance penalty vs.
>> native iron.  But, it could simplify things by allowing
>> fewer physical hosts and shifting the burden to a bigger
>> VM store (just more disk space -- which you'd already have
>> for physical hosts!)
> 
> What's the advantage unless you're doing PC/mobile software development?

In the (ancient) past, I would archive the PC used for each project.
This allowed me to freeze the tools and configuration in a way that
I could return to for followup work on said project.

Then, I started dumping images of the system disks onto tape (much
cheaper than buying more 4G disks at $1K/each) from which I could
then restore *a* machine to a given configuration.

Then, replace the tapes with virtual machines residing on off-line
disk drives.

Most recently, move those VMs onto a SAN so they can be "reactivated"
from any of my normal workstations.

But, the NEXT step is to consolidate my current workstations into
a single (?) box and virtualize all of the prior machines (knowing
that the VMs will obviously fit on the media that held the original
images -- just relocate them to the SAN).  Presently, I have to swivel
my chair and move from one keyboard/set-of-monitors to another to
access any of the (6) workstations that I regularly use (each is
equipped with software and peripherals appropriate for the tasks
to be performed with it).  Moving everything onto one (or a couple)
host would simplify this and reduce the amount of equipment I have
throwing off BTUs.

> Python already supports its own virtual environments, and running a Windows VM 
> isn't much fun on a laptop..maybe on a desktop/server with lots of RAM.

I rarely use a laptop (I have 7 of them, collecting dust -- I can't
do much in a 17" screen, anymore!).  All of my desktops have at least
100G of RAM and a dozen+ cores so that's not an issue.

And, as I don't need to run multiple VMs *concurrently* on a single
host, the performance hit *seems* tolerable.

[The workstation that I use for live video processing will remain
dedicated to that task as I am *sure* a VM will result in problems]