January 2018 - Heiko's Blog

Keyboards and Mice

I’m the type of person who is learning things the hard way. This is also true for me buying computer equipment and peripherals. I cannot even recall how many times I have replaced my computer mouse and keyboard in the last decade.

One should think that a mouse or a computer keyboard aren’t exactly rocket science – well they aren’t! Yet many popular mice or keyboards are either bad by design, or fall to pieces within a relatively short time.

Below is a list of things you should be checking when buying a computer mouse or keyboard. It is based on my personal experience – your experiences may be different, though.

Virtual Machines on UserBenchmark

For some years I have encouraged benchmarking of Windows virtual machines (VM), to help users fine-tune the configuration and to get a general idea of how efficient virtualization with Xen or KVM actually is. My benchmarks – posted under the username “powerhouse” – and those of other users can be found on the Linux Mint forum under Post your Passmark results of your Windows VM and UserBenchmark – post your results. When reviewing some of my benchmarks on the UserBenchmark website, it occurred to me that the information on that website can be put to practical use.

Developments in Virtualization

I haven’t had much time in recent months to follow up on what’s happening in the KVM or virtualization world. That much bigger was my surprise to find that things are moving on quickly. When I started out 6 years ago to virtualize Windows and run it on Xen using VGA passthrough, I thought I would be forever marked as a geek.

Today I’m looking at dozens if not hundreds of tutorials and websites dealing with VGA passthrough (VFIO), and an ever increasing number of followers. It seems to me this technology or concept is gaining momentum, at least among Linux users.