Virtually Real

Since starting to play with VMWare Player, I've grown just a tiny bit more familiar with Linux, but not that much. I'm able to run a virtual Linux box on my PC here at work without messing with anything much (just installing the player). Now, while that's cool and all, I'd really like to dual boot Linux and Windows, and I'm far more comfortable doing that with a machine I don't own (ie my work PC). Even though I might be okay with trying this, I have a feeling that the IT guys might see it a bit differently.

I have a theory that I could use the VMWare player as a shell and boot into the virtual Linux box directly if I made some changes to the boot settings. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find any guides on doing so, and it might just be another harebrained scheme. However, I have seen references to a way of doing just that, so I remain confident that it can be done. I just don't know how.

Part of the problem of searching for info on dual-booting a virtual machine and its host operating system is that the search terms are the same as setting up the virtual machine in the first place. The other part of the problem is that it's weird and insane. After all, if I can use a virtual Linux machine on my Windows desktop, why do I need to do the same thing without Windows?

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I imagine your nerd radars started going a little crazy back there.
PPS - It should be safe to turn them back on again now.