Windows Linux, Linux Windows.

I love linux, problem is I can never get completely free of windows. I did a dual boot for awhile and well, I'm not a fan of rebooting everytime just to switch to a different OS.

What I would like to do is run both operating systems simultaneously. I suppose I could get a cheaper older computer, upgrade a harddrive and some more ram, and then get a keyboard for the both of them. But I am looking for an alternative means for now since I don't want the clutter of an extra computer.

I plan on upgrading my monitor and video card. What I would like to do is run windows on one monitor and linux on the other on the same computer. I was thinking about having one OS and have an emulation run on the one monitor. I know I could maybe get it down with a windows base, I don't know about with a linux base though. What I would hope for is to have both OS's running themselves with no emulation. Something along the lines of splitting the processor (hyperthreading ac ts as 2) so half of it runs for the windows half, and linux runs on the remaining half.

Its just something I want to do . I'd appreciate some recommendations of what others may have done. I know other people have the best of both worlds, I'd just like to see all the options and hope to find something similar to what I am asking to get.

I think you're looking for vmware.

The only other way I would know to do this with absolutely no emulation would be if you had a dual processor system.

can't hyper threading act as my "dual processor"?

Hyper-threading has nothing to do with the architectural state of the OS, which exactly what you need to differentiate. While you can use techniques to create virtual processors, the operating systems running on those processors have to at least be in the same family, if not indeed the same OS.

I can't give a definitive answer on this though, as it's something I've never actually tried. I routinely build multi-seat systems with isolated heads for each system, but never tried to do so using different operating systems as a base on a single processor system, hyper-threaded, dual core or otherwise.

My best guess would be that if you ever did get something like this working, it would be unstable at best and fry your processor and possibly any other hardware connected to it at worst. Windows and Linux are two very different operating systems on the kernel level (thank God) and, while a Linux kernel could be made to segregate itself into only a portion of a given processor and to only use dedicated RAM space, I doubt you'll be able to do this with much luck with a Windows kernel. Not being able to do this will mean it'll only be a matter of time before your Windows kernel invades the Linux kernel space causing both systems to crash horrifically.

As I said though, I've never tried it. If you really need to have both operating systems running at the same time, you can get all the hardware you need for a second system and a KVM switch for less than $500.

If you absolutely must do this, best of luck to you.