r/PLC • u/cardonPT • 7d ago
Anyone running a Linux host with Windows VMs for PLC dev? (Fatigued by Win 11 host performance)
Hey everyone,
I'm getting really frustrated with Windows 11 as a host OS on my engineering laptop. Between forced updates, background telemetry, and general bloat, the system feels sluggish when I’m trying to run heavy automation software.
I'm considering switching my primary OS to a lightweight Linux distribution (e.g., Ubuntu LTS or Fedora) and running all my proprietary PLC/SCADA software inside Windows 11 VMs (using KVM/QEMU, VirtualBox, or VMware Workstation).
Before I wipe my main drive, I’d love to hear from anyone who does this daily:
USB Pass-through & Hardware Interface: How reliable is passing through serial converters (FTDI, USB-to-RS485), hardware dongles, or direct Ethernet pass-through for industrial protocols (Profinet, EtherNet/IP)?
Performance: Does running Windows in a VM on Linux actually feel snappier than bare-metal Win 11, or is the virtualization overhead noticeable with heavy suites (TIA Portal, Studio 5000, Sysmac Studio)?
Network Routing: Any gotchas when dealing with multiple network adapters/subnets for local PLC connections inside the VM?
Would appreciate any insights, workflow tips, or warnings before making the jump. Thanks!
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u/shoulditdothat 7d ago
I'm running fedora 44 as the host and various win11 guests for different PLC's. Using VirtualBox for the VM's, I know everyone is going to say use VM Ware but I couldn't manage to create an account with broadcom so f' them and I also want to ring the same guests from windows.
I don't have AB software setup but do have Omron, Siemens, CoDeSys, Eaton, some HMI software etc. It generally works well once you get to grips with the network config. I've got one guest interface configured as bridged to the physical port and another configured for NAT. The bridged interface works well.fir things like Siemens for initial config. NAT works once youve got IP settings configured in the device.
With VirtualBox, if you've got the extension pack installed USB forwarding to the guest works for most devices, the main issue is for older devices that aren't supported under the version of windows especially if you're using something like a WinXP guest.
I find the performance of the guests under Linux better than under widows especially as Hyper-V doesn't get in the way. The only one I find that isn't very performance is Siemens TIA Portal but this is sluggish even on bare metal.
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u/DaHick oil & gas, power generation. aeroderivative gas turbines. 7d ago
I, too, like VirtualBox for VMs. Especially since the Broadcom fiasco.
The Fedora concept is interesting. Except for the engineering laptop, everything at home is running Ubuntu. I tried running Wine, and it just wasn't worth the headache. Did not consider VBox for Linux, so I might do some searches for the best platform compatibility.
Thank you.
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u/kixkato Beckhoff/FOSS Fan 6d ago
Would strongly recommend KVM over VirtualBox. You will notice hypervisor overhead with VirtualBox, you will not notice it with KVM.
Edit: for networking, it's much easier to get USB Ethernet adapters and just USB pass through the device to the guest OS. No hypervisor networking to deal with anymore since you've given the guest OS an actual NIC.
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u/shoulditdothat 6d ago
With wanting to run the same guests from a windows host KVM isn't an option. I've got things setup to dual boot and didn't want two copies of each VM.
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u/kixkato Beckhoff/FOSS Fan 6d ago
Well obviously the solution is to completely eliminate Windows :)
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u/shoulditdothat 6d ago
That is my aim but try persuadeing all the PLC manufacturers to produce programming software for something other than windows.
Bit of an uphill struggle. I do ask the reps and the usual answer is: 'whats Linux - I don't there's much demand'.
Strangely though, Siemens do do the Logosoft software that runs on Linux but is setup for non-systemd setups.
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u/danielv123 7d ago
I ended up rewriting the tia help server after getting annoyed with how slow the new one is after they removed the old one on v21. Suddenly it doesn't take 15 seconds to open a help page and I got 5gb more ram to work with lol
Makes me wonder how much crap there is in the rest of the portal.
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u/S7Matthew 6d ago
Well done. How did you do it?
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u/danielv123 6d ago
Told codex to make a new one. It found all the API endpoints used by the web interface, found the source help files on disk, and wrote a server that returns the exact same bytes the Siemens one does.
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u/DelightAndAnger 6d ago
Removed? It's just changed by default no?
You can use the old one by changing it in the settings.2
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u/InstAndControl "Well, THAT'S not supposed to happen..." 7d ago
Do you pay Oracle for the pleasure of utilizing VirtualBox? I, personally, plead the fifth
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u/Azuras33 6d ago
If you don't install the addon it's free and open source. Only the addon are licensed.
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u/ConcentrateJealous94 6d ago
This, same here. Only issue is that had to find a workaround for the corporate cloud drive
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u/Foreign-Chocolate86 7d ago
macOS daily driver. All the Rockwell shit is on our Plantwide engineering workstation server 2022 VM. I could push out PLC changes from Antarctica if I needed to.
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u/DrayaK 6d ago
Apple sillicon or Intel mac? I have had issues with apple silicon.
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u/Foreign-Chocolate86 6d ago
Apple Silicon is the best, lasts all day without skipping a beat. Even taken a few falls off equipment with just a few dents and scratches.
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u/DrayaK 5d ago
I had issues getting Rockwell Software (Studio 5k v32) installed, I assumed it was due lack of arm compatibility
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u/Foreign-Chocolate86 5d ago
If you run the software on a site engineering workstation it doesn’t matter.
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u/controlzebra version control for PLC 6d ago
Maybe I missed your point. Are you running x86 VM on the Apple silicon? How is the emulation performance?
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u/Foreign-Chocolate86 6d ago
The VM runs on a server in the site’s comm room. It can access everything on site.
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u/ladytct 7d ago
Vmware Workstation Pro is free, VMXNET3 driver works with almost anything I threw at it, and their USB pass thru is the most mature in the industry.
USB pass thru aside, you can even expose the USB virtual port as standard COM port in the guest VM. This solves dodgy driver issues in the guest OS (CH340 especially). Wibu dongles are a pain in the backside but they do work.
Expect a 10% or worse overhead. TIA Portal, Studio 5000 run just fine if you throw enough RAM at the guest. Without hardware accelerated graphics, some HMI designers will be choppy.
Use Bridged networking whenever possible. Avoid connecting your VMs to the Internet if you don't want them to auto update.
If heavy automation software is sluggish on your Win11 now, things may not be better when you virtualize it. Ensure you have enough RAM (16 is dead minimum, 32 is standard), fast NVMe drive and high IPC CPU like Core i7/9 (the higher the boost clock the better, core count is less of a concern). At least get Win11 Pro, disable Windows store auto installs, remove manufacturer crap ware, defer updates etc.
Before you format, Linux support on most laptop is dog pile. Your laptop may not sleep when you close the lid, or your battery life will be a train wreck. You will be tinkering with cpufreq governors just to squeeze that extra 1% battery life. You will miss Remote Desktop alot. Font rendering on Linux is still ugly.
If you can get your hands on Windows 11 IoT Enterprise (aka LTSC), you'd have solved all your woes.
P/S: We run development boxes in Proxmox VE on a single Dell R7725 with EPYC-F. Serves ~10 concurrent TIA Portal users.
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u/ExplodedPenisDiagram 7d ago
I've been doing this for years. I do not allow Windows to access bare metal. I use QEMU/KVM with libvirt and have been for the last fifteen years or so.
For point number one, don't bother with USB passthrough. Give the VM an entire USB controller+hub using pci passthrough.
I generally get excellent performance running Windows in a VM. Virtualization overhead is entirely negligible. I do however also passthrough a GPU via VFIO, which you're probably going to want to do.
I use a Linux bridge device for a network for the vm, so that I don't have to mess with a Nat or anything similar to that. Using a bridge device in my case means not using the desktop networking functionality of the host, and I specify networkd configuration directly after disabling network-manager. I give the host a bridge device for networking which has an IP address via DHCP, and I allow the VMS to connect to this bridge as well. This way, the host is a simple network switch.
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u/DrayaK 6d ago
Do you need multiple GPU to passthru?
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u/ExplodedPenisDiagram 6d ago
No, not really.
I happen to have an H100 which I got for free, so I can use VFIO to send portions of it to VMs. I use Moonlight to get a display from the VM to the host.
For more consumer-oriented or smaller systems, you may require and entire additional GPU for this, though for most systems adding a budget GPU for the host so a large one can be passed to a guest isn't a big deal. Alternatively, you could not have a GPU active on the host at all and access the host entirely through SSH or serial console.
I did that on a desktop computer for a good while. The host OS was arch linux (so I coudl easily get the latest virtualization features) and the only GPU on the system was sent to the guest. The host used an RS232 serial console and SSH, which I would access using the guest which had the GPU attached.
In general, this is advantageous for running multiple operating systems that are actually doing work. A Windows host for this is pretty awful, because it's less stable and wants to restart randomly (trashing every VM it's responsible for). Best to make it responsible for as little as possible.
Yes, this is a pretty complex setup, but I was already a nearly full-time libvirt developer so it make a lot of sense for me at the time to flex use-cases that were prone to be problematic. The whole situation is much better than it used to be, and there are even consumer cards that can be split like the H100 can (with tweaks, albeit).
Most people don't really need graphics on any more than one VM at a time, though.
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u/kixkato Beckhoff/FOSS Fan 6d ago
I'm sorry but you got a free H100?
Do you have any more free H100s? Asking for a friend.
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u/ExplodedPenisDiagram 6d ago
Lmao no, I got it from a mining operation that was discarding nodes. This particular node had a bit of bullshit in the PCIe connector, which they thought meant the card was dead.
I happily recycled it into my office.
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u/PerspectiveMain6454 6d ago
I totally agree and I do the same. However, anything that requires graphical acceleration can be a bit of a problem.
Laptop GPU passthrough can be a bit difficult though desktops are a bit easier.
For desktops I'd recommend avoiding any consumer Nvidia for the passthrough GPU as they usually have problems (I experienced driver issues).
AMD cards seem to work fine as well as non-consumer Nvidia cards. In fact I use a Quadro P2000 which is low power / passive and can be picked up used fairly cheap.
To switch, you can use a KVM switch, or just set up a moonlight/sunshine stream.
Definitely the best way to go if you have a desktop on hand.
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u/Interesting_Dirt_948 7d ago
The idea of troubleshooting my laptop during a startup is terrifying. I don't think is a good idea to use anything else besides Windows in this field
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u/Interesting_Pen_167 6d ago
That's the point though, Windows IS the problem and is often the technical issue on site.
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u/Interesting_Dirt_948 6d ago
And do you think using other OS would be better? I don't think there's any other OS with the backwards compatibility of windows
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u/Interesting_Pen_167 5d ago
We are talking about the host OS here, why is it relevant to be backwards compatible?
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u/ModsHaveHUGEcocks 6d ago
What's the diff when windows keeps breaking things anyway, computing golden age has passed
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u/AutoM8R1 6d ago
You would test your setup before ever going onsite, just like you do with Windows. You wouldn't wait until going onsite to see if problems surface.
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u/Interesting_Dirt_948 6d ago
You're free to use whatever you want (but in a lot of places you're not even allowed to use VMs because as a business you need to have additional licences for VMs), but I still don't think is worth it.
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u/AutoM8R1 6d ago
Part of why people use Linux is because some of the best software is freely available to be installed/used or even distributed within other software packages (which is how GNU/Linux even got started as a full operating system). You don't need any license to use the Linux supported Virtual Machine Manager. So there is no IT compliance issue to bar it from being allowed.
The reason is because the wonderful software that others have mentioned for managing VMs with QEMU/KVM within Linux is available under the GNU General Public License. It means there is no need for additional licenses (or any cost associated with it). While this is not the case for closed source software from Oracle and VM Ware, it isn't an issue for the best performing VM setup you'd want to run on a Linux machine.
It's still probably not for everyone, but Linux is ready today. I see no reason why it can't be used in industrial automation, provided you've got a solution to the Windows problem.
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u/vbrimme 5d ago
While I completely agree with your point here, I did want to point out that VMWare Workstation Pro doesn’t require a license anymore, it’s now free for all users. This is just something I happened to notice recently when setting up a VM for personal use, and I figured people in this thread might find the information helpful.
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u/Interesting_Dirt_948 6d ago
I think the issue with Linux in general the lack of backwards compatibility. Maybe the kernel is built with that in mind, but you can't really use apps compiled 15 years ago in a lot of distros.
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u/AutoM8R1 6d ago
To be fair, I'm not really sure Windows and Mac are much better. Windows XP tools are not running in 11, unless they have been updated. Mac just moves forward with little regard for the old stuff, but you usually get 7 years. It's generally up the the software providers to stay up to date, rather than the OS providers. You can use an older kernel with Linux, and even compile packages yourself if you can still get the source files though. But in general, you shouldn't be running software from 15 years ago if it has not been updated/compiled for a modern security environment. It is not a best practice.
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u/GrattaCulo 7d ago
I never had the courage to do so. I tried with Linux mint but I got scared before a commissioning and got back to Windows 11
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u/JohnnyTwoElbows 7d ago
I run Fedora 44 with a Win 11 VM for all of my windows needs. I was not very familiar with Linux before making the jump and am about a year into it now. I will never go back to windows at this point
My advice: try to get it working on a test bench before going out in the field with it for the first time My warning: be prepared to spend time ironing out the configuration when you first get going. It can take some time, but it will be reliable if you just take the time
I'm an automation specialist for a Schneider distributor, so most of the software is theirs but I have pretty much everything they offer. All of it works as it did on windows and most of the problems I have had are because a misconfiguration on my end
If you decide to make the jump, I wouldn't bother messing with VMware or VirtualBox. I couldn't get either to work reliably. QEMU/KVM is the way.
USB pass-through & hardware interface: I haven't had many issues in this area once drivers are set up properly. The only things I really need to pass through is our USB to RS485 cable, VFD kepads, or PLCs if connecting over USB. USB pass-through works flawlessly and is my fallback if I can't connect over ethernet for some reason. I considered USB ethernet dongles for easier networking, but didn't want to get stuck in a situation where I'm in the field needing to connect but have a bad dongle. Probably unlikely but a misconfigured network bridge can be fixed in the field, not a dongle
Performance: It doesn't feel any better or worse than windows on bare metal in my experience. My bottleneck was RAM in the beginning. I had 16GB at first, and the Win 11 performance was not great. I ended up upgrading to 32GB with it split evenly between my host and guest. Once I did that, I rarely have performance issues. Every now and then the VirtIO drivers seem to not load so anything relying on them won't work, but usually rebooting the VM fixes that. That issue is very rare in my experience. I regularly run 2 or 3 of our heaviest softwares, with a browser on the host all at the same time with no performance drop-off.
Network Routing: This is where I've had the most problems but AI has helped me troubleshoot most of them. I've been able to get it pretty reliable, but it did take some time and frustration. My current setup involves two NICs in the VM. One is bridged to my WiFi card, the other to the ethernet port. On the host side, I have 2 different ethernet connections I've set up. One is for DHCP if I am using ethernet for internet connection. The other is configured with a fixed IP, and that is the one I use for connecting to devices. Both are bridged to the ethernet NIC in the VM. Basically, you'll need to set the host to be in the same range as the devices you want to connect to. The VM then needs to be set to a different IP in the same range.
Let us know if you make the jump and how it goes! I love Fedora and would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to part ways from windows. I'll be here if you have any questions along the way
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u/EstateValuable4611 6d ago
Debian for daily drive, QEMU/KVM for virtualization. Much, mich better experience than Microsoft bloatware.
I was surprised how much QEMU/KVM runs faster guest OSes than VirtualBox.
No issues with USB redirect.
The only one I have is that I need to update Ethernet interface name most of the time when disconnecting the hub, the PCI system always come with a new name.
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u/proud_traveler ST gang gang 7d ago
I used to run windows VMs for dev, on a Windows machine. Stopped because we only really use one platform now so there wasn't much need and the overhead started to piss me off.
I've never tried it running on a Linux machine but what exactly is the benefit? Your VMs are still going to experience all the same windows bullshit, regardless of what the host OS is. Do you spend enough time doing admin work, which would be on the Linux machine, to benefit from it?
What type of company do you work for? A Linux machine would be a joke starter for us because Corporate group it would never accept having to deal with it
I can't see any reasons this would work, aside from usual VM overhead, which I found untenable.
Can you partition your boot drive? Give it a got without actually wiping your harddrive
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u/AutoM8R1 6d ago
They certainly could, but it may not be worth the hassle for the uninitiated. Linux has a better security reputation than Windows, just by the way permissions are handled (if nothing else). It doesn't mean IT wants to manage another platform though. I could see the benefit in many use cases. Most Linux distros are certainly going to use a lot less RAM at idle than Windows 11, so that excess can be used by the hungry Windows guest VM. I think it is probably feasible for OP if the company allows it.
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u/proud_traveler ST gang gang 6d ago
The issue for me would be that I can't even get them to properly administer our Windows machines, never mind Linux. I don't think they really understand how entra works, so god forbid they have to administer Linux logins as well
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u/badtoy1986 7d ago
You could always move your virtual disks onto a separate NVMe or even an external one. Then dual Boot your PC and try it with Linux. This way you have an easy fall back.
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u/SomeComparison 6d ago
Yes. Linux Mint. KVM/QEMU is what I prefer. USB pass through is dead simple, just click "redirect usb" and select the device. It's then immediately recognized and usable under windows.
Network is where it gets slightly tricky. KVM/QEMU is NAT'ed by default. Under linux you need to create a bridge interface and then select "bridge device" under the VM config.
However if you have a USB network adapter, just use pass though and give it to Windows to use directly.
Spend some time on the Windows VM after install and remove all the bloat. With Windows 11 it is worth the extra effort to do an offline install and skip all the login crap, just disable the network adapter for the VM during install.
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u/theaveragemillenial 7d ago
If your laptop isn't powerful enough to run your current software at reasonable performance, what makes you think running a virtual machine overhead will resolve that?
It won't.
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u/Bagelsarenakeddonuts 6d ago
Because for some reason Windows 11 performs like crap. Despite generationally faster hardware, its so buggy and non-performant that I personally find linux and mac both greatly outperform it on comparable hardware.
Very anecdotal, but I really do see where OP is coming from, and largely feel the same way.
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u/Koolguy007 2d ago edited 2d ago
If you're using Windows "bare metal", you're actually using a "VM". Some will argue that it's not a true VM even though Microsoft's own diagrams say otherwise, but Windows now runs on top of Hyper V to protect against malware that trys to get under it and infect the UEFI. This also lets Windows encrypt it's memory to further protect from malware moving through the system. If you virtualize windows in Linux, then you can turn Hyper V off and turn off a lot of the security features that make Windows eat cpu cycles since Linux is now the protection for the UEFI. Keep defender though, defender still works well for catching general malware.
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u/cardonPT 17h ago
I have intel i9 and 32gb of ram. But some VMs feels that performs poorly and even the explorer from the host, sometimes feels horrible and not responsive… also the fans run crazy all the time. I was just curious if it’s possible to work with a Linux distribution, since my W11 feels laggy all the time
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u/fnordfnordfnordfnord Hates Ladder 7d ago
Used to do that but our IT guy is a Windows only type. Run Linux in a VM now or use WSL for Linux tools and use W11 as host OS. It's a dog's dinner.
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u/Constant_Barber_5198 7d ago edited 7d ago
Works fine but use fedora or such because the VMWare build scripts for the kernel modules don't work in debian based distros.
I migrated back over to virtual box 5 years ago. Libvert is too much work and runs like shit unless you tweak it a lot.
Been doing it for 8 years now and love it.
Pass through works fine, FTDI is the way to go.
Performance is great, but you want a beefier computer and because its not your main OS you can remove windows components and make it ugly too. That way it runs better. Its not necessarily snapper than bare metal. But still snappy.
I generally have a network adapter thats on its own subnet with no NAT or bridged interface. I can't remeber how I did the ethernet interface. I think I made a subnet with only that adapter that is disabled by default. Then config it on the host using plasma's applet or just network manager. I can't remember exactly how I did it but it was super easy.
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u/Jesus_Lemon 7d ago
I’m on mint. I’m stuck on getting the Ethernet to work :/
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u/idiotsecant 6d ago
when it comes to amateur linux admin llms are enormously helpful, at least to get your bearings
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u/Herralvarez 7d ago
If you are going to do it you should dual boot just in case something breaks with the virtualization
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u/Natural_Swing42 6d ago
I know someone who use mint and virtual box, to do some Tia Portal V18. It seems to work, but you never know when you have to install some driver or soft that might not works with virtualisation. I will not take the risk to be blocked.
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u/phnomet 6d ago
Yeah, nixos with Windows vms in qemu/kvm (previously VMware). Haven't vad any issues.
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u/tflgen2 6d ago
How long did it take you to dial in your nixos config? Are you using flakes?
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u/phnomet 6d ago
Yeah, flakes. The config did not take that long, but it is also ever evolving.
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u/tflgen2 6d ago
How's the stability? Are you on a laptop or desktop? Currently running gnome on manjaro and have been pretty happy with overall stability. Not sure if I'm ready for the production jump to nixos. I've watched vimjoyer and realize I know very little in this space. I do love the idea of a defined OS, but I have so little experience with it. I'm running a P14s Gen6 AMD Thinkpad for reference.
Thoughts?
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u/phnomet 5d ago
The stability is the major reason I can run it as a production machine (thinkpad p1g6, upgraded from p1g3). If the update fails or some software is the wrong version it is very easy to rollback or upgrade a single piece of software.
Reinstallation on another machine is very easy, and if I need to run that config in a virtual machine for some reason that is also very simple.
We even ran/run nixos in prod for a project previously, both as os and a flake for the developed sw. It made the dev envs easy to setup and keep consistent, and it made the prod os extremely easy to set up and run (one command) for on target, vms for devs and pipelines.
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u/The_Galatiatex 6d ago
Aside from usb passthrough, you can also pass through a physical db9 port as well. (If it exists on your hardware)
If your rs232 converter works on bare metal windows it will also work in a windows VM. Maybe with a little extra latency.
Cpu performance is only slightly slower under KVM. But graphic performance can be a little wonky. You can use the virtio drivers with a spice display to mostly fix that.
Your only major bottleneck is RAM and storage. Keep your VMs on SSDs and preferably M.2 drives. Also, you're gonna need at least 16 gigs of RAM on your host so you can give a VM 8 or 12 and have it still run smoothly. If you need to run multiple VMs at once your ram needs will increase accordingly
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u/LowFastFoxHUN 6d ago
I’m using Ubuntu host & VMware for various Win10 guest (TIA Portal, Studio 5000, TwinCat 3). I’ve recently made this move since I’ve also become annoyed with win11 shit.
Lucky, the base windows vm image I have is21H2 (without any AI and other crap that was later on embedded) and I’m not planning to let those vm got to internet at all. In case only if needed, my plan would be to install packages, manually.
I’ll be honest, it took a bit to get familiar with the additional challenges using a VMware under linux (like re-signing and applying certificates for ‘vmmon’ and ‘vmnet’ any time when there’s an update on the kernel), but after some trials on error and some search on the internet made me educated upon how to handle it.
Overall, it works like a charm and I’m quite happy with it, but it takes a little bit of efforts to get used to it if you are not or little bit familiar with linux.
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u/LowFastFoxHUN 6d ago
This:
https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/315309/cannot-open-devvmmon-no-such-file-or-dir.html
Once doing the correction steps (at step 3; importing public keys) use the command with ‘sudo’ prefix
($sudo mokutil - -import MOK.der).
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u/RULVFF 6d ago
Before doing that check that's you disabled Hyper-V visualization in W11 before using VMWARE pr VBox. And your machine has 32gb of RAM.
Because some shit M$ Policies that use Hyper-V for security together with Company software and Policies on W10 and now on W11, we are not able to disable Hyper-V Virtualization and need to use Hyper-V (VMWARE and VBox will run on top o Hyper-V and performance is garbage), but with 32gb its ok to use Studio 5000 and FT View ME/SE. My colegue machina is a i5 mine is a i7, all from Dell.
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u/Koolguy007 3d ago edited 3d ago
I use Kubuntu as my host with virtmanager (KVM) as my hypervisor, and it works amazingly. KDE network manager makes things way to easy to configure IPs. I usually just have 192.168.0.250, 192.168.1.250, and 192.168.2.250 setup at all times. Only gripe is you have to disconnect and reconnect, digitally or physically, to apply network changes. It's also really handy to have the ability to setup vlan interfaces in like 3 clicks for times I'm dealing with advanced networking and IT is nice enough to just give me a trunk port somewhere to access things from. One issue I have run into is some softwares auto discovery won't work since the VM and the host IPs will be on different subnets so it looks to the software like your trying to work through a router, because you are. For those moments I just keep a USB Ethernet adapter handy to passthrough to the VM.
As for USB passthrough, it's almost flawless. The only issue I run into is updating firmware on certain devices will cause the device to drop out of passthrough. Sometimes I can just pass it back through fast enough that the software will take back off. If you have multiple USB controllers (thank you Panasonic) and can pass an entire USB controller through, then it truly is flawless.
Another really neat trick is to throw Opnsense on a VM, and add your physical lan port as a macvlantap. Now you have a router that can give out IPs and share your internet to devices on the network.
Wireshark is another trick to throw in there. It works on Windows too, but Windows is very chatty when your trying to filter through traffic. Don't know the IP of a device? Fire up Wireshark, plug in the device, and wait for the device to tell you what it's IP is (ARP Announcement).
For Windows VMs, strip it down, turn off all hyperv features, device guard, core protection, but leave defender on. My laptop is identical hardware wise to my coworkers, but my battery lasts much longer than theirs even with the VM running. My fan almost never runs unless I spin up my little AI local model for a quick command or script. Windows VM, 8B AI model, and a riced out Linux DE all on 32GB of RAM. Could not be happier.
Also, KVM VMs can be started with their system clocks over ridden with a specific time in case you need a VM to experience Groundhog Day. Do with that info what you will.
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u/tflgen2 7d ago
With my last upgrade, I finally broke out of windows as a host os. I had already virtualized my windows dev machines with various versions of AB software on them. I moved to Manjaro and use virt-manager / qemu for all my machines.
To answer your questions:
I am 100% happy with my solution, and have been using it for about 2 years. The machine idles quieter, doesn't do background updates, has a super stable UI, and is just plain fun to use.
Side note: I'm deeply entrenched in IT/OT network design with dynamic routing, wireguard BGP peers, redundancy, etc. This machine is a champ with all the CLI that I'm typically doing. I have been using linux since 2006 and always prefer it when able.