Bad idea for games, performance will suffer.  I'm not sure exactly how Visual Studio will react, but it'll be slower too.

I figured performance would be a big problem. I guess VM is out of the question then as Windows is my main development target so debugging through VM doesn't seem like it will be a great idea.

That entirely depends on if you want to pay for another machine and don't mind getting up and moving from one to another.

If you do use two different machines, and they're nearby (as in you can sit in a chair and see both their screens at the same time), you may want to look into Synergy (depending on your workflow), which allows you to seamlessly share a mouse and keyboard between the two.

Actually they would be at the same workstation, hooked up to the same monitors (I figure I'll have one switch between 2nd screen and the server). I've seen synergy before actually, I was looking at it for my laptop/HDTV (a laptop which I no longer have ).

Inbetweenie option: Wubi.

I've tried this before too, it seemed pretty easy to install, which is a plus. Are there any performance issues with running Ubuntu this way? (actually, Ubuntu is the one I'm less concerned about performance-wise so this might be the way I go) I assume I can install it on an independent drive?

Thanks for the answers so far

Bad idea for games, performance will suffer.  I'm not sure exactly how Visual Studio will react, but it'll be slower too.

I figured performance would be a big problem. I guess VM is out of the question then as Windows is my main development target so debugging through VM doesn't seem like it will be a great idea.

That entirely depends on if you want to pay for another machine and don't mind getting up and moving from one to another.

If you do use two different machines, and they're nearby (as in you can sit in a chair and see both their screens at the same time), you may want to look into Synergy (depending on your workflow), which allows you to seamlessly share a mouse and keyboard between the two.

Actually they would be at the same workstation, hooked up to the same monitors (I figure I'll have one switch between 2nd screen and the server). I've seen synergy before actually, I was looking at it for my laptop/HDTV (a laptop which I no longer have ).

Inbetweenie option: Wubi.

Actually, I've tried this before too. Are there any performance issues with running Ubuntu this way? (actually, Ubuntu is the one I'm less concerned about performance-wise so this might be the way I go) I assume I can install it on an independent drive?

Thanks for the answers so far