More than one computer in the same box- virtual machines
I have mentioned virtual machines (VM) several times in connection with computer security and I continue to believe that this approach will be important. Lee Gomes has a column in today’s Wall Street Journal that describes his experience with VMWare, a leader in this area. He begins his article
I am sitting in my home office, looking at three windows on the computer screen in front of me — each of which is, in effect, a separate computer.
One window I use for nonwork tasks, like surfing the Web. Another is connected to my office via an encrypted “virtual private network.” The third is running the latest test release of Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system. Even though all three run independently of each other, and therefore don’t interfere with one another in any way, there is only one piece of hardware powering all of them: my Pentium 4 PC with two gigabytes of RAM.
You’ll notice that Gomes mentions having 2 GB of RAM. Lots of RAM is one requirement for running a VM. However, the fact that the latest generation of PCs are very fast with dual-core processors and lots of RAM and disk space is making running VMs very practical.
The biggest obstacle is Microsoft’s very restrictive and confusing licensing policy. Ed Bott keeps trying to get a handle on what the policy is but it is still murky to me. In a previous post, Bott says
Microsoft does not provide any technical barrier to running the home versions of Vista in a VM. Their restrictions are purely legal and completely arbitrary. People in the three categories I listed above who have legitimate reasons to run a home edition of Vista in a virtual machine may not legally do so, even if they pay for it and comply with every other term of the license agreement. If they follow Microsoft’s interpretation of the agreement, Microsoft doesn’t get a dollar more, but the customers have to hassle with physical hardware and spend hours doing what could be done in minutes with a virtual machine. That policy is stupid, arrogant, and short-sighted.
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