My typical solution for running Windows is to avoid it like the plague it is on my wallet. I do have a plan B. Plan B for me is to run an OS I can somewhat control and run a virtual machine on top of it for Windows applications. I've been without a goto plan lately, hacking solutions as I go. Primarily I'm a high value production server guy. So, Most of my clients here "It'll cost a fraction and run unstoppable." and just try out my Unix driven solutions. To date, I can't name anyone that ever went back. I've even encouraged a local CPA to move to Mac.

It seems something like Red Hat Enterprise as a base OS and VMware or Virtual Box for virtualization create the most robust environment. ZFS runs like a champ in FreeBSD. That's why I've wanted to run a VM environment in that OS, along with its flawless upgrade functionality and seamless migration. For one of the smallest distributions, it's the most robust OS I've used. It's just so fast and reliable. Lately hypervisors have hit the market with a vengeance and I find them very tempting. But, in real life the hardware support and baseline tools just don't give you what a real OS can offer. Not to mention, ZFS does some really cool stuff I've yet seen replicated in bare metal virtualization without spending a small fortune.

My quest for the perfect Plan B continues.