Declan Kennedy at APC Magazine has written an interesting analysis looking at Microsoft"s suspicious lack of advancement in OS boot technique. Put simply, Vista will still overwrite the master boot record with no regard for any other boot loader that may be present.
But Kennedy also describes how, with the right boot loader configuration, you can setup a dual-boot system that allows you to switch between Windows and Linux without having to reboot either OS, using hibernation.
His observations open up interesting possibilities for Mac users too. Boot Camp would be considerably more useful if it didn"t involve closing all applications and fully restarting the system each time. If it were just a case of sleeping one OS to switch to the other, it"d be the next best thing to perfect virtualisation. Will Apple implement this in time for Panther?