I've got a major question...

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Thu, 27 Jun 2019 11:03:40 +0200, Polytropon wrote:
>Sure, you can use a VM with "Windows" on an otherwise Linux or FreeBSD
>system, but that doesn't really solve the problem.

For me this approach at least does solve one problem. If the guest
Windows starts misbehaving or a drive stops working, its easy to
restore from the last working snapshot or backup. I once tried to
restore a Windows 98 or XP install on bare metal, after a HDD gets
broken, but it didn't work already without all that EFI stuff that
might cause issues today. IIRC that time the problem was, that the new
HDD wasn't the same model as the old one . If a hardware driver only
available for Windows should be required, we are lost with either a VM
or wine.

For the ID card readers that could be ordered for free a few years ago
in Germany, a Linux driver was available. That time I couldn't get an ID
card reader working. I don't know if it would work today.