Running your desktop PC's as a VM has some benefits, but the drawbacks are big enough that it shouldn't be considered in most environments. First, if you're running a base OS other than your standard OS, say a Linux machine with a Windows VM for the user, now you have to administer two machines for every desktop. The Linux host OS, and the Windows guest VM. This also means you need expertise on staff for both OS's, and groups to administer each OS most likely. In larger organizations, you'd end up with a Linux desktop support group and a Windows desktop support group, for the same desktops. You can't just ignore the underlying OS, it has to be managed as well. The hypervisor also has to be managed, adding more work.

It has its merits, but you can accomplish the same things much easier and with far lower administrative overhead and cost by using an enterprise desktop imaging system.

For situations where desktop virtualization makes sense, a virtual desktop infrastructure (ala VMware VDI) is by far the best solution, with VM's sharing central hardware.

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