I'm currently running Win11, initially with everything installed directly on it. And that quickly has become a headache. And then I needed VMs to run XP since had to fire up Concept 2.5..
So I added Virtualbox and created VMs and started moving stuff into VMs dedicated to specific software (Rockwell, Unity, Concept, iFix, etc.). That seems to be heading in a better direction (we'll just not talk about Windows licensing).
I'm at the point where I'm thinking Windows as the host OS isn't the way to go. I'm a Linux Mint user at home, but wondering what version of Linux folks have found works best as a host OS for VMs (and what VM software are you running).
Also open to any other thoughts on how best to setup the laptop when you have to have the ability to run every piece of software ever made, and it all conflicts with each other. And lots of times its just for a quick test..
I use Debian (12 at the moment, 13 soon) for my workstation-grade laptop. Linux KVM virtualization via libvirtd and virt-manager and virt-viewer.
KDE desktop and X11, not Wayland. (Better NVidia support for multiple monitors.)
systemd-networkd, openvswitch, and netplan.io to handle multiple VLANs inside my workstation and easily plug them into home and office 10G trunks. All VMs tap directly into openvswitch ports, configured to match client VLANs. (So Windows VMs have multiple virt networks, each pre-configured. They Just Work™ when I plug into a client network.)
Windows XP, Window 7, and multiple Windows 10 VMs run as needed, isolated as I desire.
Every brand gets its own VM. Too many tools out there step on each others toes. My host is windows 11, most of my VMs are still Windows 10.
Ignition gateways are containerized on a linux server, and we also have a few specific VMs set up for projects we demo for customers.
You definitely should NOT shop on ebay for cheap windows licenses. These licenses are totally legal but much cheaper than you can find elsewhere so definitely do not purchase from ebay. Make sure Micro$oft gets their well deserved money and only buy from first party sources.
I'm running Windows 11 with VMware Workstation 25H2. I keep all my Rockwell software on its own VM(s) and have a Linux VM with Docker and Portainer for doing dev work on Ignition when I need to on my laptop. Otherwise, we have dedicated VMs for customer projects on our company servers (or customer servers/PCs if we have them). The only Rockwell software I installed on my laptop was FT Activation Manager so that my licenses would live on my laptop, and whatever VM I was running could get the licenses from it. This allows me to use snapshots, rebuild VMs, etc without a lot of hassle messing up or breaking activations.
I used to run WSL2 on Windows with Docker but then had other issues trying to run network emulators like GNS3 if I recall, plus when I'd stay in Marriott hotels, they were using a subnet on their WiFi that conflicted with my docker subnet preventing me from getting internet access, so it all got scrapped, and I put everything inside VMs.
Digitalchillmart.com is what I use for win10/11 licenses for cheap, never had a issue. Looks like they also have back to win7 and some office keys as well.
Work pretty much always insists on a windows laptop they can have their corporate nannies on. So typical setup is windows + basic office productivity programs and nothing else installed locally. For projects we spin up new virtual servers for development, so each project / client has its own VM so it can be configured as close to their prod system as reasonably can be. Works better that way as we can archive it when done the project and if they come back a couple years later we can just spin it back up. For on-site commissioning then it's VM workstation and run everything inside an image. Probably should have a better system for that but generally it's just one local VM that has everything installed in it and it's only when I run into a version problem that I use a different one.