What is the lightest VM solution for personal use? [closed]

I want to use VMs instead of my computer because I'm tired of many hours of formatting and installation/configuration of my environment.

What solution should I use for maximum performance and lightest host and full-compatibility with my devices?

I don't know if I was clear but I want this above. Could someone help me? (I have a TOSHIBA a305-s6858 notebook: Core 2 Duo, 3MB RAM)

2 Answers

Your processor is of no help

All virualisation products will be extremely slow. VMWare Player, VirtualBox or QEMU will allow easy network access.

Well for maximum performance and lightest host you probably want Ubuntu , its one of the many Linux distros , just install this instead of the OS you have now. I cant work out why you have to keep formatting your drive for though, I have Windows 7 on my laptop and have only had to re install it once and I have had it about 2 and a half years. If you dont want to have to keep configuring it you should take a system image once you have re setup your pc, store this on an external drive, then when things go badly wrong just restore the system image off the external drive and key presto your laptop is setup and configured how you want it.