- I want access to a modern Firefox, and I don't want to boot into Linux to get it. At the same time, I don't want to lose access to ArcaOS (by booting into Linux).
You would not lose your OS/2 data cause Linux can read your JFS partitions very well.
But he, when I'm on Linux then my FF and Seamonkey (email) profile and all my other data (documents, passwords, program sources) is on Linux host too. There's no sense anymore to store them in a virtualized guest system.
Follow with me now ...
1. *Boot* one Host-OS, minimally configured ... never touch it again.
The key is the Host-OS. What is your Host-OS? Do you think there is any host OS which your really can 'never touch again'? And when you have a host OS, even a crippled one, then you have to master this host OS. And live with the host OS. Live with the host OSes quirks and problems. Have to keep them running and maybe install security updates there. Have to backup the host OS itself in case of ....
Example - for me the host OS never can be any Win cause I can't trust this OS. So the host have to be some flavor of Linux. FreeBSD, OpenSuse, Manjaro, Ubuntu, ... name it. It does not care. If I have a host OS which I have to know how to save, manage and backup my productive data, there's not much need anymore to produce any new data in a virtualized guest. There are tons of programs running native on Linux which will do my jobs similar or better than I do it on OS/2. But I've to live with the host OS crippled user interface (compared to the WPS) and with all the things you've to configure in some conf files in Linux.
Remember I know the benefits of VMs. But I don't see any advantage on running OS/2 as guest. If I change my main OS to some Linux then there will be no need anymore start OS/2 - ArcaOS. F.i. when I change my current file/mail/svn/web/.... server from OS/2 to Linux then a lot of things probably will work more smoothly as they do now. Given I ever invest the time to learn how to setup all this stuff on Linux.
For what do YOU need ArcaOS running in a VM?