[lug] Advice on Xen

[pjr]

I just got a new machine with a dual core VT compatible chip.

I still need a few M$oft compatible products (hate to admit it) that
dont do well under wine, and I need complete compatibility. I have read
a bit about Xen, but there are things I am not clear about. Perhaps one
of you know the answers or can point me to a good place to learn more.

If there is hardware not easily supported by linux (lets say a wireless
card, fingerprint reader or DVI output from the graphics card), can the
guest OS (lets say XP) still use those hardware components even if dom0
running linux cannot?

Is there any modern (last 6 months) comparison of tradeoffs in the
various virtualization technologies? I am thinking of Xen, Virtualbox,
Parallels, etc. I can find older comparisons, but nothing recent.

Also, how about tradeoffs between running windows as the host and linux
the guest, or vice versa? I wonder whether it will make much difference
to me which is which. 95% of my work will be using linux tools, but
can't live without those last 5%.

Thanks for any advice you have

Phil