Thanks for the reply
Aye, I've used VMware a few times with virtual disks... but my theory with booting it from the raw disk is that I should be able to pop into FreeBSD without VMware as well. Either to check out progress on the age0 driver, or to simply stare at what a computer looks like without internet.
And then when there is a driver that gets committed, I can just drop VMware, update, and rock out.
But I think I will go virtual disk. It's not like it takes any real effort to install Vista/FreeBSD. One disc, nap. Second Disc, nap. Occasionally it'll ask me annoying questions, and for configurations. If I time it right, should only take a few hours. If I take too many naps, a couple of days. Either way