Rory - in what was widely* hailed as the Worst Idea Ever - suggested that single-purpose well-optimized OSs might be an Interesting Idea.

I tried to gently shoot him down with a soft, loving nuke or two at the time, but now, I find myself wondering if he was actually clinically ill, or a prescient speaker of the future. See, I have this Xbox. Yeah, the same Xbox I've whined about on this blog before. It has a problem again, since the x64 upgrade. In a word: drivers. Yeah, I know an Xbox doesn't use drivers, but to play one via a PC, you need video capture drivers.

Or do you...? The problem is mostly the Apple 20" widescreen monitor I use. It has DVI only, because it's built for use with an Apple only. A couple of friends picked up a Dell 24" Wide 2405FPW for $AUD1500 (um, about $USD1100 or so, ish), which I thought was *amazingly* cheap, and they noted that it has DVI, S-Video, Composite, component in - generally everything you need to plug a non-PC device into it, plus picture-in-picture, picture-by-picture.

"Hahahaha", they laugh, "Hahahaha! How much did you pay for yours again?"

$2200.

"Hahahaha! No, really, I'm sure it's wonderful."

Yes.

"Hahahaha!"

You know, you're really not very good friends.

"Hahahahahaaahahahahaha!"

All of which got me thinking, while I was trying to find some lime with which to fill the pit - let's review the current situation.

• DVICo FusionHDTV card with TV input - no x64 drivers (and I really appreciate their being upfront about it).
• Nvidia Geforce 6600GT w/ VIVO - no WDM Video Capture drivers for x64.
• Monitor: no non-DVI inputs, so any solution pretty much has to go via the PC.

Which is rapidly leading me to an unpleasant choice:

• Buy an $AUD900 (on special this week) Dell 2005FPW (all the same inputs as the 2405FPW), and give the Apple to my parents. Apple cost $2200 at the time. Retrospective economic pain may outweigh level of generosity.
• Buy a small LCD TV for the Xbox - for more money than the Dell Flat Screen!? (are LCD TV makers insane!? How much can a tuner and a couple of speakers cost?) er - so while I tried to impulse-buy one this weekend, I was left upset and confused. I think it may have showed, the store people kept well away...
• Buy a second hard drive and plonk a dedicated dual-boot copy of Windows XP, 32-bit with all the drivers I need on it for Xbox gaming only. Not allowed to use it for anything else.

See, Forza Motorsport just came out, and I'm hungry for a taste of the action. Plus, it solves my Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory problem neatly, by letting me get the Xbox (avec Live) version. Though it could be argued that with a 32-bit dual boot, I could just install it in that copy. But that defeats the purpose. It has to be a targeted, short-duration boot.

The buy-another-20-inch-monitor-and-give-the-current-one-away idea appeals to me, mainly on the basis that I could paint the bevel silver in a futile attempt to hide it from my girlfriend, before angrily accusing her of having problems with her short term memory, but I think I've played that card already this year.

Sigh. What would you do?