I still firmly believe that when you need a VM with a second desktop OS in it, then you are basically walking with a crutch and your preferred host operating system was not the right choice for you.
You believe incorrectly. First off there are a LOT of IT people that work on Windows VMs running on WINDOWS virtual hosts. What does this say about the preferred host OS? It says nothing because the benefits of virtualization extend beyond the OS choice.
VM Ware makes an Enterprise VM product (ESX) that runs a "bare-metal" install with no OS but it still uses a Linux distro at a low level. This tells me that they felt the 'nix base was better than an NT base.
I never think about my drive spinning for no reason in windows anymore because it doesn't happen. I can't remember the last time I rebuilt my VM OS - never got an "NTFS.sys not found" or comparable error. My windows VM on my Mac consistently shows better throughput and resource management than native Windows intalls. I can boot/shutdown or resume/sleep my VM faster than a native windows install so if my crutch lets me walk faster than you then I'll take the crutch.
A VM on a Mac is the only way we will see an instant resume Windows in the next 2 years. I can shut the lid on my Mac and go to a meeting and when I open it my VM is ready to go. Funny how my crutch can do that and MS can't do it on a native install - it's almost like there is some sort of benefit to Windows not touching the hardware.
I can drag and drop files between the VM and the host, even when the VM is off I can mount the image and retrieve any files I need. In your two computer world you are using USB key, need a network, and probably even need to boot up another box - let's hope you don't need a power cord because now your that guy with two laptops out and wires running everywhere. Yeah man, that's a smooth solution you have there.
Redundant? You know that means you have two of the same thing. You have one mac and one PC so you have Zero redundancy - you just have two disparate objects. I have my VM backed up to 2 external drives. If something did happen to my Mac I can copy that VM file to any computer running a VMWare host (Linux, Windows, Mac), hit play, and now I'm up and running again in the time it take to copy the file. All my app, files, and settings EXACTLY the same as before. That ability to repeat the same setup no matter what is redundant, your setup is just "dundant"...
Another thing, why the hell would I want to use a cheap POS windows PC when I've got a MBP? Again, let's bench my VM windows against your crap-top, betcha it's not close. If I've spent the $$$$ on the hardware I'm going to use it, you'd have to spend much more than $500 to get comparable specs to the mac.
