Virtual Machine Desktop For Elderly Father

[BlueCoder]

I'm setting up a new computer for my father again ten years later and I'm considering using virtual machines on top of real hardware for the desktop. The primary motivation is segmenting three virtual computer sessions. One web browsing, the second for banking and a third for installing and playing with whatever he wants. The first two would be locked down as far as he will be concerned, with him being able to admin and install software on the third.

Anyone have thoughts about this? Anyone actually done it?

I'm considering this because I'm setting him up with a new box, It will have more than enough memory for his uses and be more than fast enough compared to what he was running before. Only issue I'm concerned with with is video playback performance and passing through USB devices and his optical drive seamlessly. Benefit is I can theoretically setup and run a Gentoo server (such as to proxy and filter traffic for windows VMs such as his banking VM) in the background and possibly transition him to a Ubuntu desktop for some applications such as casual web browsing and email. I think it will also enable me to more easily remote into machine and to transfer the virtual machines images for me to work on locally.

Again Thoughts?

[Infiltrator]

Not a bad idea, I'd really lock down that vm he will be using for internet banking.

1) Make sure its being patched regularly.

2) Do not install unnecessary software, like Java, Adobe or any other third party apps.

3) Install an AV, like Avast

4) Do not use administrator account to log in, create a limited account instead.

5) Do not use IE, use either Firefox or Chrome

I think the above, should be OK for a secure VM.

[vdub]

Why not try Chromium.

http://chromeos.hexxeh.net/