you're a very helpful person...

Thanks for the replies.

So the bitcoin client does what exactly? Send and receive bitcoins only?

Newer VM setups allow you to virtualize hardware, some graphics cards can now be used by a VM host machine.
I was thinking it would be more efficient to virtualize then throwing hardware at the problem.
Of course my understanding of bitcoins at the moment is simple at best.

Again, so I am clear on this. Bitcoins can be bought with money or mined with a PC?

thanks again...

I've been reading about the idea of bitcoin and would like to participate.
However I'm confused about the technical requirements.

I can't seem to figure out why some people use the GUIminer vs the bitcoin client?
Don't they do the same thing? mine?

GPU vs CPU mining?

I understand the benefits of using a GPU vs the CPU mining, from a power side.
Would not a virtualized environment work as well as multiple GPU environments?

thanks in advance...
D