VMWare?

I have read that many people use VMWare. Why do you use it? How do you use it? What are the advantages to using it? I mean can I be in windows, and start VMWare up and all of a sudden access my linux OS that is sitting on a different partition and run LINUX within windows? Sort of like remote desktop? Can so one explain it all to me please.

When I had Windows XP installed (A Long Time Ago), I had VMWare installed and running, so I could emulate various distributions of Linux, that I would eventually try out. I also tried out that operating system that is like a mix between Windows 98 and Linux...ReactOS.

Shelnutt2 said:

Sort of like remote desktop? Can so one explain it all to me please.

Click to expand...

Sort of, but it is a Virtual Machine, not a remote desktop.

So what do you use VMWare player? Or do you have to purchase VMWare workstation?

There is now a free version VMWare player, and you can download different distros and OSes to use with it.

http://www.vmware.com/products/player/

VMWare emulates an entire computer, so you can run any OS inside it, and the OS doesnt know that it is running inside of a virtual machine.

I use it to play Theme Hospital on Windows 95

Ah, thank you guys. I think I will mess around with this. Sounds interesting.

We use VMWare Server for development at work. Snapshots are very handy.. you snapshot a machine, apply patches or updates, and test the server... if it fails, poke around, find and solve the issue, then revert it, apply the fix, and do the update again.

I use VMWare Workstation personally for Quickbooks, which refuses to run on Linux. Got the license at Linux World Toronto last year.

David said:

VMWare emulates an entire computer, so you can run any OS inside it, and the OS doesnt know that it is running inside of a virtual machine.

I use it to play Theme Hospital on Windows 95

Click to expand...

Finally, a practical application (or at least one that matters!) for virtualization.

vmware ROCKS.
At work we run all of our production Windows servers on GSX or ESX Linux hosts. We used to have rows and rows of physical Windows servers. Now we have a couple of racks of beefy IBM Intel servers that run at least 4 Xeon procs and 8gb ram ,Linux as the host OS and host for the Windows servers. I used to have four pc's in my cube. Each one different for testing. I rececntly had a memory upgrade on one pc which I run Vmware workstation. (to create my virtuals) I prefer the vmware player vs vmware workstation to run the vm's. I have 7 vm's configured, but lacked the local disk space to house them. I only have a 20gb hd, so my vm's files were stored on a network share. Not exactly cool where I work.(the vm's are 30gb) The VM performance suffered as well, being on a share vs. local disk. I convinced my boss to get me a larger HD, which I got today,,,160gb,,,woohoo,, let the vm's begin. I have a XP template vm. When I need another vm for testing, I just clone the template to a new vm and a way I go. Install what I need for that vm and I'm good to go. At home I use the free beta VMware Server to create my vm's. I have a template, a general use vm, and a work vm that has my vpn app and work apps. I am posting this on my general use vm. If it gets mucked up, I just revert to a snapshot, or delete the vm and clone a new one. If I want to play around with a version of *nix at home or work, I create a new vm and install.