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"Yes, but that means you have to dual boot... I stopped doing that a decade ago. It was a PITA, and you lose state -- if I'm working on something in one window, and need to work on something else, I shouldn't need to reboot. I often leave 3-4 windows up with development stuff (code, running programs, log files, etc) while going off to do other stuff. If I have to reboot in order to do "other stuff" then I have to quit out of any files I'm editing, close all my windows, and reboot..."

Then use the windows that came with your computer in some kind of free virtual machine then.

Admittedly they still need to use a special functio of bochs to achieve it, but things are moving quite quickly on this even so.

After Linux comes Windows, they suggest.

VMware has figured out how to get around the aspects of the x86 architecture that don't virtualize properly. If Dosemu could do those same tricks, that would be truly cool.

Of course, there is the FreeMWare project, which aims to do just that. From a brief look, it seems that they have to scan the instructions before execution to find instructions that have to be emulated.

If it works (I have no experience with it), FreeMWare is, well, free. The webpage says it's still unstable & for developers only.
Christopher A. Bohn

If you're looking for a "free" clone of VMWare, there's one called FreeMWare. This is headed by the creator of the shareware Bochs emulator, so I think he knows what he's doing. Apparently they're taking an "embrace and extend" approach to VMWare (don't know the details off hand). The code is still quite beta, so don't expect miracles (yet).

Many people do have a problem paying $99 for VMWare. Some people are even doing something about it - they are creating FreeMWare, an open-source product similar to VMWare. But right now, there is no real alternative to VMWare (other than dual-booting) - XFree86 is a very good alternative to commercial X servers.