If you develop on multiple operating systems, is it better to have multiple computers + displays?

Posted by dan on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by dan
Published on 2011-11-29T13:25:50Z Indexed on 2011/11/29 18:02 UTC
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work-environment

I develop for iOS and Linux. My preferred OS is Ubuntu. Now my software shop (me and a partner) is developing for Windows too. Now the question is, is it more efficient to have multiple workstations, one for each target OS? Efficiency and productivity is a higher priority than saving money.

I have a 3.4Ghz i7 desktop workstation running Ubuntu and virtualized Windows with two displays, and I'm putting together an even more powerful i7 Hackintosh with 16GB RAM (to replace my weak 2.2Ghz i5 Macbook Pro). My specific dilemma is whether I should sell the first computer and triple boot on the second one, or buy two more displays and run both desktop systems simultaneously.

Would appreciate answers from developers who write software for multiple OSes.

Running guest OSes in VirtualBox on one system not ideal, because in my experience performance is seriously degraded under virtualization. So the choice is between dual/triple booting on one system vs having two systems, one for OSX+iOS/Windows (dual boot) and the other for Ubuntu (which I prefer to use as my main OS).

For much of our work, I write a server-side application in Linux and a client for iOS (or for Windows or OS X) simultaneously.

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