My main home PC still has XP. I use it to access my UnRAID, surf the Internet, do my taxes, and download "stuff". I set up a W10 VM on the UnRAID but, W10 sux and I would need to re-purchase a lot of software (like MS Office) if I would use the W10 VM like I do my XP PC. I am thinking about buying W7 to run on the home PC......or, should I VM that too? What setup do others have? If I strictly went with VMs, how would I access those.....would I install a Linux-based OS on my home PC and remote into the VM every time I wanted to check my email and use MS Office?

If I were you, I'd invest some time in setting up a linux mint cinnamon VM to play with. You may find that you no longer need MS for anything. Libreoffice does what most light MS Office users need, including creating Office compatible documents. Thunderbird email is a very capable email client, not directly outlook compatible, but close enough for many people.

 

Another vote here for Linux, either Mint or Ubuntu.  I made the switch and definitely would recommend.

 

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How do access the VM? If you use a PC to access the VM on a server, what OS resides on the PC?

How do access the VM?

Depends on the OS. If it's a linux variant, I typically use VNC installed on the OS, as opposed to the VNC on unraid. If it's a windows OS, then RDP.

If you use a PC to access the VM on a server, what OS resides on the PC?

Whatever you are comfortable with. There are VNC and RDP clients available for windows or linux.

 

I advised installing a linux VM so you can play around with it without committing yourself to the installation on your desktop. If you can get comfortable with it in a VM, I recommend using linux as your desktop OS.

 

I personally have linux mint, ubuntu, debian, windows 7 and windows 8 physical machines, either desktops or laptops. I have a similar mix of VM's, and I can access any VM from any of my physical machines. I use whatever suites my needs at the time. My daily driver desktop that I'm typing on right now i a linux mint cinnamon box.

My main home PC still has XP. I use it to access my UnRAID, surf the Internet, do my taxes, and download "stuff". I set up a W10 VM on the UnRAID but, W10 sux and I would need to re-purchase a lot of software (like MS Office) if I would use the W10 VM like I do my XP PC. I am thinking about buying W7 to run on the home PC......or, should I VM that too? What setup do others have? If I strictly went with VMs, how would I access those.....would I install a Linux-based OS on my home PC and remote into the VM every time I wanted to check my email and use MS Office?

 

FWIW earlier versions of Office work fine on Windows 10 -- Office 2003, 2007, and 2010 all work perfectly.  Depending on the version of Office you have, you may very well have an additional activation you can use to simply install it on your Windows 10 VM, or on a newer OS you install on your current PC.

 

On the other hand, if you don't need to run Windows software (e.g. your other applications -- taxes, business accounting, or the like), it's not a bad idea to try one of the Linux distros.  The free Office clones do indeed work very well in these; and browsing the Internet, e-mail clients, etc. are plentiful for Linux.

 

How do access the VM? If you use a PC to access the VM on a server, what OS resides on the PC?

 

Don't forget you can install a video card, keyboard, and mouse in your unraid server and connect to it directly (No need for an extra machine to act as a terminal). Depending on the location of the server, and where your workstation lives, you may need to invest in some longer cables though...

 

I'm working on that right now, and everything I've read tells me performance is close to bare metal.