I’m always trying to stay up on operating systems as they change and improve. It would be hard to have a dedicated computer for every operating system that comes out so it could be tested and used. About 10 years ago I discovered a nice alternative to a dedicated computer. It’s called a virtual machine and it’s a software simulation of an operating system.
The one I use is called Oracle VirtualBox. It’s installed on my Linux computer, one of my Apple laptops and on some of my Windows ones. It allows many virtual machines to be used on one computer. I can run Windows 2000, Windows 7, Vista, Linux Ubuntu server and some others without needing to close or restart the host computer. It’s been nice having all these OSs on one computer.
You do need a instance of the operating system for each virtual machine on DVD or other media and install it just like it was a standalone computer. Virtual machines make Operating Systems easy to try and test so give them a try.
