[avr-gcc-list] Using multiple versions of AVR Studio (was Re: crosstool-NG)

[Graham Davies]

I wrote:

> > Since you can have only one version of AVR Studio installed at a time and
> > AVR Studio does not uninstall reliably, this means that I have to 
> > re-install
> > the operating system to switch versions.

and then Trevor Woerner wrote:

> Wow, that's crazy!

It may seem crazy, I admit.  But, once you've realized that this is the way 
you're going to have to work you can actually get it down to a couple of 
hours from the start to being productive again.  My installation is stripped 
down with nLite, for a start, and I have saved off a disk image after the 
second reboot during the installation process that I just restore.  All I 
really have to do is reinstall all my drivers and the applications I need. 
There are other benefits to frequently reinstalling a stripped-down Windows, 
such as blazing speed and great stability, that you don't get if you use the 
same install for a year or so.  Also, I avoid installing any Microsoft 
products.

> As a possible work-around have you considered using VMs?

Oh, yes.  I have invested scores of hours in trying to get VirtualBox to 
work properly.  But I just can't seem to get it to play with USB devices, 
such as the AVR Dragon and JTAGICE Mk II using the Jungo driver.  I even 
tried throwing out Windows as the host and starting from Linux and running 
Windows in a VM under that.  This didn't work because I couldn't find a 
Linux driver for my video hardware that has asymmetric dual-monitor support, 
which I have grown dependent on.

> Of course I'm ignoring licensing issues here.

To a certain extent, so am I.  I have a legal copy of Windows to do all the 
above, but I never activate it.  I just reinstall every 30 days.  I have a 
second legal copy, that *is* activated, dual-booting on the same PC, that I 
use for hardware design.  I am really, really careful what I install on that 
and so far that still flies.  Having a very fast and stable computer is 
worth a couple of hours of drudgery every month to me.

Graham.