Virtual Machines are awesome.

I've recently started using Virtual Box. It's a lot better than it used to be a few years ago when I last tried it. I can actually play games in a virtual box running Windows XP. It can be installed on all platforms, and has extensions for them all too. These extensions are important for interacting nicely with the host operating system. I've used it both for hosting XP, and for hosting Ubuntu Desktop 9.10. One minor issue I've had with this is that I have to run a command line tool in order to replicate a virtual disk. It's not just a drag and drop action, because there is a GUID attached to each virtual disk, and it needs to be different than all the others on the host machine.

I've played with VMWare too. Also very nice. I've only done Ubuntu 9.10 on it so far, but I like it. Very fast, but a bit odd to get going. I'm just no used to it. I'm happy enough with Virtual Box, that I'm not sure I want to spend a lot of time on this. I also didn't like that the website wants me to log in every time I download it, even if the current version just told me to download an update.

Microsoft Virtual PC is good, but I've had a lot of problems with it recently. Slow response, and sound that breaks up from time to time are the major frustrations. I still use it regularly for some things like IE 6 testing for work, just because I've already had the machines built with Virtual PC. I do love that fact that I can just drag and drop the hard drive to a new folder to create a brand new virtual machine. Keep in mind, that if you're going to do this, and run more than one cloned OS at a time, you'll need to change each one's MAC address so that they appear as different machines on the network.

I've used Microsoft's Virtual Server 2005 R2 for a few years, and it's works well, but I don't like the virtual machine manager, based on IE and IIS. They need a real desktop tool. Other than that, it works well, and I'd even recommend it, but I haven't tried Hyper-V Server 2008 yet. My brother has used it and thinks it is the future. I have to find some time and the right hardware to play with it very soon, so I can give a proper opinion. So far, what I've read and heard has been very positive.

Opera 10.5 is out and holy crap is it fast.

I've been trying out the newest Opera, and I'm amazed at how fast it is. All of the good browsers have been sparring to be the one with the "fastest" title, but Opera just smacked the rest of them down a peg. I'm sure Google Chrome (Webkit) or Firefox (Gecko) will come back with another scripting optimization that puts them back in the game soon. But hey, I don't care. This is where competition is great for the consumer. We get the best and fastest browsers... for free.

Now what can I do with all this speed?

Stop using Internet Explorer !

Let me first preface this post with the following disclaimer. I don't have a problem with Microsoft. I've been a Microsoft Certified Developer for at least 10 years, and plan to continue with the certifications. I personally use many of their fine products, and see no reason to stop with most of them. I only have a problem with Internet Explorer.

I've recently read about yet another Internet Explorer security problem. Apparently there is a vulnerability in VBScript (IE is the only browser that supports this I believe), that can use the F1 key to run remote code. The offending website just has to ask you to click F1 to see Microsoft help on a subject, and that's it, "arbitrary code could be executed in the security context of the currently logged-on user." That means that they probably just installed a virus, or spyware on your machine with a single keystroke from you.

I used to just tell people to upgrade their IE, especially if they were running IE7 or lower, but now, I'm just advising against using it all together. It's just not safe for day to day browsing.

As a web designer, IE 6 is the bane of my existence. It easily adds 20% to the schedule of our design implementation. IE 7 and 8 also add, but to a much lesser extent.

As a family technician, I see IE as the doorway to many security problems, which lead to the calls, "can you take a look at my computer? It's doing something really weird." I usually have to clean one or more viruses off, and install an automatically updated free anti-virus program. Then I always install and strongly suggest using Firefox. Many times, they just don't listen.

These are all very good browsers, that are free, more secure, more standards compliant, and much faster.

http://getfirefox.com
http://opera.com
http://google.com/chrome

If after reading this, you decide to continue using Internet Explorer, I have no respect for you.