The original rant remains standing: On a philosophical level,
virtual machine layers limit the geek. Some geeks like that.
This one prefers freedom.

I think I'm the complete opposite. I love the fact that VMWare/QEmu/etc.. are coming along and creating a virtual machine where I don't have to worry about hardware compatibility anymore. I'd like to eventually have preconfigured/pretuned virtual machines that are specific to a job function become the norm. This makes server migrations, turn-ups, turn-downs, etc.. far easier imho. But this is coming from a SysAdmin, not a programmer, so that may be the difference.

Hmmm. Hadn't thought of this angle. Compelling reason for a virtual layer. Good point.

-Jared