plan: to the user, normal boot into windows. In reality, the computer boots ubuntu (or your choice of linux), then starts a virtualbox running Windows in full-screen mode.
requirements:
hide the Ubuntu boot screen
faster Ubuntu boot time
automatically start virtual machine
VBoxManage startvm <vm_name>
automatically full screen (r cntrl-F)
automatically connect network, audio, USB, CD/DVD, etc
Benefits:
easy restore/backup
able to take "snapshots"
able to use regular windows backups (DFS) on client
full Windows functionality
host OS (linux) and virtual box are free
VDI are platform independent. Thus the user could potentially have the same Windows install and upgrade their hardware.
Cons:
no differential backups of VDI
resource intensive (CPU, RAM)
setup virtualbox port forwarding
from
note: case sensitive!
C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox>vboxmanage list vms
C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox>VBoxManage setextradata "ubuntu" "VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/webapache/HostPort" 80
C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox>VBoxManage setextradata "ubuntu" "VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/webapache/GuestPort" 80
C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox>VBoxManage setextradata "ubuntu" "VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/webapache/Protocol" TCP
C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox>VBoxManage setextradata "ubuntu" "VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/ssh/Protocol" TCP
C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox>VBoxManage setextradata "ubuntu" "VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/ssh/GuestPort" 22
C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox>VBoxManage setextradata "ubuntu" "VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/ssh/HostPort" 22
C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox>VBoxManage getextradata "Ubuntu" enumerate