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VMWare Inc. Releases Free Virtual Machine Runtime

rfinnvik writes "VMWare Inc. has released a new free (as in beer) virtual machine runtime called VMware Player. According to VMWare, this free VM runtime makes it possible for anyone to run virtual machines created in their Workstation, GSX or ESX products. It also runs virtual machines created in Microsoft's virtualization products. The runtime is available for both Windows and Linux."

318 comments

  1. see, now I'm gonna try linux.. by way2trivial · · Score: 2, Funny

    why- cause it really WONT cost me anything to try...

    Just pray I'm a vocal member of a new majority...

    --
    every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
    1. Re:see, now I'm gonna try linux.. by Nik13 · · Score: 2, Informative

      No need for VMWare for that really. Knoppix is pretty good, and you can even find versions of it that come with QEMU. No need to install anything.

      --
      ///<sig />
    2. Re:see, now I'm gonna try linux.. by Chasuk · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I'm using the VMware Player to browse Slashdot, RIGHT now, with something called the "Browser Appliance," which I also downloaded from their site. "Browser Appliance" consists of a version of Ubuntu and Firefox 1.0.7. It works slicker than shit, with almost zero system degradation.

      I'm impressed!

    3. Re:see, now I'm gonna try linux.. by tepples · · Score: 1

      Knoppix is pretty good, and you can even find versions of it that come with QEMU.

      Is QEMU usably fast?

    4. Re:see, now I'm gonna try linux.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      undo upmod now foo

    5. Re:see, now I'm gonna try linux.. by tommy_traceroute · · Score: 4, Informative

      Is QEMU usably fast?

      Depends on your definition of "usably."

      I've got a USB stick with Damn Small Linux installed, both bootable and through QEMU, and it's screamin' fast when booted direct, but barely manageable on an Athlon 2500+ under QEMU. If you do most of your work from a terminal, it's fine, but the GUI, not so much.

      So, answer = not really, but it's still damn cool.

      --
      o 1 Sig beneath your current threshold
    6. Re:see, now I'm gonna try linux.. by jp10558 · · Score: 1

      But... Why would I want this/Care? I mean, I can just run a browser normally right? Unless we're figuring it's a good way to further sandbox the browser - in which case it is, but now you have the issues of another OS to deal with - in addition to an alternative browser.

      Also, does it allow persistant customization? Can you install extensions? How does it handle saving downloads to your actual computer? If it allows this, is it really worth the overhead for the sandbox (as it's doing very little a well designed browser wouldn't do natively)?

      --
      Opera, Proxomitron-Grypen,GPG 0x0A1C6EE3
    7. Re:see, now I'm gonna try linux.. by afidel · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Set it's virtual root partition to a path under your main OS. That way changes to preferences can be saved along with data files, but the application and guest os are freshly loaded each time and seperated from the host os and its applications. This will actually work nicely for me. My boss had told me that I am not allowed to install Firefox when I get my next new PC so that I match the corporate desktop when I do application upgrade testing, now I can just download a Linux distro and run it under VMWare =)

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    8. Re:see, now I'm gonna try linux.. by pAnkRat · · Score: 1

      If you use the Qemu Kernel module it is workable.
      I run win2K in Qemu here at work (debian sarge host).

      Without the kernel module Qemu has a slowdown factor of 5 to 10.
      With the kernel module the factor is only 2 to 1 ("realtime")

      Just to use the occasional MS sql servel enterprise manager stuff, it is pretty good.

      --
      we need an "-1 Plain wrong" moderation option!
    9. Re:see, now I'm gonna try linux.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So could you tell me something? Exactly how slick is shit? I've always wondered, but just didn't want to go to the trouble of finding out for myself... ;p

    10. Re:see, now I'm gonna try linux.. by jred · · Score: 1

      If you've been eating corn or peanuts, not so slick. Drink a little mineral oil*, though.... pretty fucking slick.

      *don't do this if you won't be near a toilet...

      --

      jred
      I'm not a mechanic but I play one in my garage...
    11. Re:see, now I'm gonna try linux.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm sure you've already realized this, but your boss is a freakin' retard.

    12. Re:see, now I'm gonna try linux.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thanks for the tip, pAnkRat!! I wasn't even aware KQEMU existed.

      Interesting that it's closed source, but I think I can overlook that this time.

      Cheers,
      Tt

    13. Re:see, now I'm gonna try linux.. by Riddlefox · · Score: 1
      How does it handle saving downloads to your actual computer?

      I dunno about this version, but the full-blown VMWare had a facility where you could use "Shared Folders" to transfer files between your virtual and real machines. For instance, I was running a virtual Linux machine under a real Windows machine. I could share, say, "My Documents" in Windows and it'd appear as /mnt/hgfs/Docs in the Linux machine.

      As far as your other questions, I don't know what any advantages would be. I mainly used VMWare to simulate a low-end PC running a very minimal version of Linux, and I needed to transfer files from Windows to Linux.

      You could have persistant changes (in the full version). VMWare created a file on your host machine's hard drive, and used that file as the virtual machine's hard drive. So, any changes you made to the virtual machine could be stored permanently. Again, no idea if the lite version does that.

    14. Re:see, now I'm gonna try linux.. by Snaller · · Score: 1

      How did you get online? Here its impossible for it to connect to anything.

      --
      If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
  2. Re:this does what? by bhtooefr · · Score: 2, Informative

    Basically, have you seen how there's a QEMU image of ReactOS, and I'm sure other OSes have QEMU and Bochs images?

    Well, this means that they can now use a VMWare image, and link to the VMWare Player.

  3. Existing virtual machines? by eMartin · · Score: 4, Informative

    AFAIK, the existing virtual machines really just consist of a simple plain text file that describes the machine, and a disk image that can be one created by VMWare or another text file that points to a "standard" image file type.

    So, does this mean that if I create those files myself, I don't need the commercial products at all?

    1. Re:Existing virtual machines? by eMartin · · Score: 1

      And yes, I know that it doesn't offer the more advanced features such as snapshots, but I'm just trying to figure out why they would leave out the creation of virtual machines, if that's a relatively easy task.

    2. Re:Existing virtual machines? by X0563511 · · Score: 1

      Sounds like it, but watch out... those "text" files may contain patented information...

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    3. Re:Existing virtual machines? by RLiegh · · Score: 3, Insightful

      As far as I'm aware, there is nothing out there which can create (Bochs and Qemu can read) VMWare disk images, and they're more advanced than simple raw or dd-created files with filesystems slapped onto them.

    4. Re:Existing virtual machines? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Format I think is cow or a close releation. There are VMware Image converted to boch and qemu I don't think there is qemu and boch to VMware.

    5. Re:Existing virtual machines? by jtstowell · · Score: 1

      Creating the file may be difficult, but it doesn't sound like anything prevents booting a CD inside the VM and reformatting/reinstalling whatever OS you want inside.

      So, just grab a pre-built VM image that's big enough and do your thing...

      --
      ... Seen a paperless office lately?
    6. Re:Existing virtual machines? by yeremein · · Score: 5, Informative

      As far as I'm aware, there is nothing out there which can create (Bochs and Qemu can read) VMWare disk images, and they're more advanced than simple raw or dd-created files with filesystems slapped onto them.

      Actually, if you create a "pre-allocated" virtual disk (as opposed to dynamically growing), you'll end up with a text file "something.vmdk" that provides disk geometry and points at a raw bit dump "something-flat.vmdk". VMware (Workstation 5.0, anyway) can use an existing dd dump if you create a .vmdk file that refers to it. I've done this several times.

    7. Re:Existing virtual machines? by hal9000(jr) · · Score: 1

      I'm just trying to figure out why they would leave out the creation of virtual machines,

      M-o-n-e-y. Being able to play back a VM is really cool, but they will make thier money off selling workstation, GSX, ESX, etc. This is a great way to distribute demo software. Think about it, Knoppix and other bootable Linux's are useful, but I don't use them for the same reason I don't dual boot. I want to run both Windows AND linux at the same time. I can do that with VMWare.

    8. Re:Existing virtual machines? by LurkerXXX · · Score: 1

      They might not have the option in the player to install the VMWare tools for the OS you install. Without those, your video performance is going to suck pretty bad for many things.

    9. Re:Existing virtual machines? by RLiegh · · Score: 1

      That's the most interesting thing I've heard on this site in ages. Would you mind giving an example? Maybe tell us what you'd type into a vmdk file (viz-a-viz geometry) to refer to an 2 gigabyte file (which I assume you'd make with the dd line: "dd if=/dev/zero of=something-flat-vmdk obs=1M count=2000"?)?

    10. Re:Existing virtual machines? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      I have a tutorial with some details up at:

      http://www.laportestyle.org/tutorials/ghostinthema chine.php

    11. Re:Existing virtual machines? by jtstowell · · Score: 1

      True... but they could grab the tools .iso files from the evaluation version of VMWare Workstation.

      Performance is also okay without tools on X.

      Tom

      --
      ... Seen a paperless office lately?
    12. Re:Existing virtual machines? by mvdw · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Whatever their format, is there something in the VMWare license that says you can't share them? Because if it's possible to share them, then someone with a valid copy of VMWare (or even, dare I say it, an evaluation version), can create a whole bunch-o-images, and the rest of the world can benefit.

    13. Re:Existing virtual machines? by RLiegh · · Score: 1

      IANAL, but I tend to doubt it, since Bell Labs, IBM and others have put VMware-made images onto the web.

    14. Re:Existing virtual machines? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can download pre-built VM's right from the VMWare site. http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/vm/

    15. Re:Existing virtual machines? by ID10T5 · · Score: 1
      ...it doesn't offer the more advanced features such as snapshots...

      According to the product comparison posted at http://www.vmware.com/products/player/comparison.h tml, the player can in fact use snapshots. There is an asterisk related to snapshots indicating that VMware ACE does not support snapshots, but the X in the "Revert to previous state using 'snapshots'" column for the player would imply that the player does in fact support them.

      As they are targeting the player at "developers, testers, and other technical professionals", it would seem snapshots would be a must... especially for testers if something blows up.

    16. Re:Existing virtual machines? by kju · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Just use this to create an empty vmdk-file. Boot virtual machine from CD-ROM and install OS.

    17. Re:Existing virtual machines? by tylernt · · Score: 1

      All you need is one person with a VMWare license to create an empty .vmdk file and distribute it. Then player-demo users can fire that up and install an OS on it. You won't be able to save a snapshot, which negates VMWare's (IMHO) second-best feature (the primary feature being able to to run other OSes without rebooting), but it's still pretty cool considering what you paid (i.e., nothing). If you really want to be able to revert, get the OS to where you want it, shut it down, and make a copy of the .vmdk files. Then work off the copy and restore when necessary.

      --
      DRM 'manages access' in the same way that a prison 'manages freedom'
    18. Re:Existing virtual machines? by Curunir_wolf · · Score: 4, Informative
      This looked great, but the verbage on the web site is a little misleading. I downloaded and installed it thinking "Great! Now I can load up those MS Virtual PC Images I've been using for testing (and supporting those legacy VB6/Access applications), and I don't have to boot to Windows anymore!"

      When it didn't work, I had to dig around the site, eventually downloading the "VMwarePlayerManual10" PDF file, where on page 3 I found:

      Microsoft Virtual PC and Virtual Server Virtual Machines (Windows Hosts Only) On Windows hosts, VMware Player can run Microsoft Virtual PC and Virtual Server virual machines. When you open a Virtual PC virtual machine in VMware Player, it automatically creates a VMware-compatible configuration file (.vmx), while preserving the original Virtual PC (.vmc) configuration file. You can save the VMware-compatible virtual machine.

      But can I then load up the VMX in the Linux version of the player? It doesn't seem to like it very much - I guess it just doesn't work.

      Crap! I guess I have to plunk down some $ and re-create thost images in VMWare if I want to do that - easier just to keep booting into windows - it takes hours to install and configure Windows on a new virtual machine...

      --
      "Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
      --- Jerry Garcia
    19. Re:Existing virtual machines? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is the basis of most of the OSx86 guides go.

    20. Re:Existing virtual machines? by Pinefresh · · Score: 1

      I didnt know information could be patented... maybe you mean copyrighted?

    21. Re:Existing virtual machines? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      it takes hours to install and configure Windows on a new virtual machine...

      Just this afternoon, I installed a new XP Pro VM in about 45 minutes. This included installing XP, the VMTools and the software I needed for this VM project.

      Now my gripe. Vmplayer wipes out vmware and visa versa. Granted, there's no reason to have both on one workstation, I just wanted to check it out. Some kind of warning would be nice.

    22. Re:Existing virtual machines? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do not believe so... Maybe I will try to create a dozen or so basic setups and make them avail through torrent... (I only have 768k up avail...)

    23. Re:Existing virtual machines? by Fred_A · · Score: 1

      You mean I could be playing Battlefield 2 while my Gentoo system is doing a full upgrade ?

      I always get bored waiting for the compiles to finish...

      --

      May contain traces of nut.
      Made from the freshest electrons.
    24. Re:Existing virtual machines? by Decker-Mage · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Nope, nothing in the EULA for VMWare Workstation to prevent you from sharing/distributing images and I've read that sucker each and every time we do another beta/release candidate (mostly to catch typos). You're supposed to stockpile these puppies if you need them so you have a stack of testing platforms. Now I'd be real careful about Microsoft EULA's, but those are supposed to be modified here shortly, if they haven't been already.

      --
      "[I]t is a wise man who admits the limits of his knowledge or skill, and that pretending either causes harm." --Terry Go
    25. Re:Existing virtual machines? by Decker-Mage · · Score: 1

      Thanks for posting the link. I knew you could do it but somewhere along the way I lost the info.

      --
      "[I]t is a wise man who admits the limits of his knowledge or skill, and that pretending either causes harm." --Terry Go
    26. Re:Existing virtual machines? by Decker-Mage · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the heads up! Probably has to do with using the same registry keys would be my guess but I'll know more when the VMWare site recovers from a serious slashdotting. I'll also want to check it against the next version of VMWareWS.

      --
      "[I]t is a wise man who admits the limits of his knowledge or skill, and that pretending either causes harm." --Terry Go
    27. Re:Existing virtual machines? by madhippy · · Score: 1

      presumably you'd need permission from whoever owns the copyright on the software installed on the image ...

      this doesn't get you round having a legitimate windows licence for example ...

    28. Re:Existing virtual machines? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Even though you *can* create create your own virtual machines, you *cannot* install vmware driver with vmplayer inside the guest OS. And if you don't have vmware driver installed, you won't get the performance as you would expect.
      You said:
      "the existing virtual machines really just consist of a simple plain text file that describes the machine"
      did you mean to say the configuration files? they are settings for the guest OS. Do not confuse Guest OS with the virtual machine.

    29. Re:Existing virtual machines? by Decker-Mage · · Score: 1
      Right, those EULA's always apply and you need to read them carefully. (You are reading them all, aren't you? I do, I kid you not.) For the *nixen and a lot of other F/OSS OS's, this shouldn't be much if any problem, but be careful around included commercialized OSS. Microsoft is, of course, more than a bit of a problem but as another poster pointed out, they are revising their policies with respect to virtualization. The new policy for server software will be that you can rack 'em and stack 'em so long as you run no more than the number of copies that you are licensed for on your hardware: real and virtual total equals the number of license you require. Actually, they phrased it a bit more obtusely than that. They stated you will be billed for the number of real and virtual server software copies you are running but that's lawyers for ya!

      When Windows Server 2003 Release 2 comes out, you will have a provision in the EULA to have up to 4 copies running at the same time in all versions save the Datacenter version. For Datacenter, it will be unlimited, but hell if you can afford Datacenter, and the attendant hardware that comes with it (it is not a separate product), you aren't worried about licensing! Still, it is an acknowledgment that virtualization changes the rules and is far less weird than the approach Oracle is taking with, for instance, multicore-CPU's (second CPU = 75% of a CPU for licensing costs ;-). MS is still a bit up in the air about Vista but who knows. The last time I looked it was at nine tailored versions and counting and I'm fairly certain that it will vary by version. Vista Server is too far out on the time line to say anything.

      BTW, nowhere in anything I've seen to date is there any restriction on whose VM you can use these provisions on and frankly I don't expect to see any. MS is not suicidal. Enterprise users are far more likely, at this stage, to be using GSX and ESX so such a restriction would knock Windows right out of the high-end virtualization market. Not on the hosting end: on the client end. That's a lot of lost license sales as anyone playing in that arena isn't just buying Windows Server 2003, they are going to be picking up the rest of the suite as well. Priced SQL Server 2000 Enterprise, or 2005 for that matter? Costs a lot more than WS2003EE by a fair chunk. Toss in Host and Integration Server, BizTalk 2005, etc., you are talking serious cash.

      That's why all this talk about MS locking out VMWare is idiotic. Sure, it might, just might, increase sales of Virtual Server 2005 Release 2 by a few percentage points. Meanwhile they kill the enterprise cash cow when the enterprise mass migrates to *nix using IBM Global Services. Duh! Badly flawed economic analysis on those people's part. If it's one thing I know, MS understands the economics (monopoly/oligopoly) part of the equation quite well. Too well in the opinion of many here.

      --
      "[I]t is a wise man who admits the limits of his knowledge or skill, and that pretending either causes harm." --Terry Go
    30. Re:Existing virtual machines? by Shanep · · Score: 1

      Actually, if you create a "pre-allocated" virtual disk (as opposed to dynamically growing), you'll end up with a text file "something.vmdk" that provides disk geometry and points at a raw bit dump "something-flat.vmdk".

      Are you sure that the image it points to does contain any extra data, like VMWare header info etc? In the past I had to check this for a work matter with VMWare 4 and it certainly was creating a disk image which I could not simply write back to a block device and expect to work, simply because of all the extra VMWare related data at the beginning of the file. I always create pre-allocated images.

      VMware (Workstation 5.0, anyway) can use an existing dd dump if you create a .vmdk file that refers to it. I've done this several times.

      Wow this is really good to know.

      --
      War crimes, torture, lies, illegal spying... Would someone give Bush a blowjob, already, so he can be impeached?
    31. Re:Existing virtual machines? by Shanep · · Score: 1

      Are you sure that the image it points to does contain any extra data

      Sorry, this should read:

      Are you sure that the image it points to does NOT contain any extra data

      --
      War crimes, torture, lies, illegal spying... Would someone give Bush a blowjob, already, so he can be impeached?
    32. Re:Existing virtual machines? by dago · · Score: 1

      "You can save the VMware-compatible virtual machine."

      Either you have a VirtualPC machine that only runs on Windows (trough VMware for windows or Virtual PC) or you have a VMWare machine that you can run on any host

      => you have to open your VirtualPC machine with vmware and then save it as a vmware machine, and you can run it on linux.

      --
      #include "coucou.h"
    33. Re:Existing virtual machines? by Curunir_wolf · · Score: 1
      Either you have a VirtualPC machine that only runs on Windows (trough VMware for windows or Virtual PC) or you have a VMWare machine that you can run on any host => you have to open your VirtualPC machine with vmware and then save it as a vmware machine, and you can run it on linux.

      Well, Virtual PC will only run on Windows, AFAIK. I was hoping this player could turn those VPC VMs into VMware VMs and let me host them under linux. Alas, VMware Player (under Windows) just looks at my VPC VMs, starts to load them, then quickly gives up with just a "can't open.. " !!!

      --
      "Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
      --- Jerry Garcia
    34. Re:Existing virtual machines? by yaba · · Score: 1

      The player start a suspended image. I guess that's what they mean. The player can neither suspend a image nor create snapshots nor restore a snapshot.

    35. Re:Existing virtual machines? by superpulpsicle · · Score: 1

      Some people suggested Vmware could simulate hard drive failures and such. I have not seen any official way to pulling disks out of the vmware layer. That would be awesome to mess around with.

    36. Re:Existing virtual machines? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you may want to try:

      qemu-img convert <FOO> -O vmdk <BAR>

    37. Re:Existing virtual machines? by bedessen · · Score: 1

      Isn't that the whole point of this exercise? VMWare is encouraging just that. If you look at the list of images currently available on their site, most of them seem along the lines of trying out a linux distro or an app server or some vendor's software. It seems like they're actively encouraging people to make images that people can play with the free player.

      Like for example, say you're Oracle and you want to have some way for customers to take a test drive of your software, but you don't want to have to worry about installing and configuring it. Just offer an image of a linux system that's all pre-configured and set up ready to go. The end user gets to try the software in a realistic setting without having to commit to installing anything.

      Or maybe you're doing training or certification, and you want to have a downloadable "reference system" that students can practice on or experiment with. They can download the image and the free player and go to town, regardless of what their current operating system is. And they don't have to worry about messing anything up, they can always hit the virtual reset button.

    38. Re:Existing virtual machines? by WNight · · Score: 1

      Will people please STOP spreading this nonsense. EULAs are NOT valid.

      You can safely ignore an EULA. It has *zero* weight. It's simple contract law, if you and I agree on something I can't go adding conditions later - it's not what you agreed to anymore. I can't sell you a car and then, after you've paid, tell you that you're only allowed to buy gas from me. That's what EULAs do. As a valid contract cannot do this, EULAs are not valid contracts.

      This was all caused by a misinterpretation of copyright law as not allowing a program to be copied off disk and into ram, thereby requiring special permission of the author. This is obviously ridiculous for two reasons. First, by selling a product, you give your implied permission for the item to be used - the customer doesn't need permission. And second, copyright law was clarified to explicitly exclude copies made for the express purpose of using the work - as in, HD and RAM copies of the program. This was the only legal reasoning for the creation of EULAs and it isn't valid anymore.

      Why are they still used if they aren't enforceable? You think they're enforceable, that's all that matters. As long as the companies don't investigate this too much, they can keep pretending they thought EULAs would be valid and enforce all sorts of weird shit with it. CPU limits?!

      Proof? Why do you think Microsoft, Adobe, and others worked (bribery) so hard to push through the UCITA in some states, specifically giving EULAs some weight? Precisely because they didn't have any before - why would they have bothered otherwise? So yes, if you're in some states where the UCITA is, the state legislators have sold your right to expect a fair contract for a one-time industry cash bribe. Enjoy democracy.

    39. Re:Existing virtual machines? by Decker-Mage · · Score: 1
      Frankly I don't care whether they are valid or not from a consumer standpoint. I don't deal with consumer operating systems here aside from testing against them, all my work is with enterprise level operating systems and unlike many people I do have numerous signed contracts obligating me to abide by the terms of the EULA and that doesn't even count the various NDA's I've signed. I'm also subject to audit at any time by the terms of that signed contract.

      Frankly you can take whatever risks you want and it is no skin off of my nose. I prefer not to watch my computers walk out the door along with the software as evidence in a civil (or even criminal in some cases) action. I don't think any business that has also signed such contracts is going to take that risk either while they await for the courts to sort out what is legal and what is not. We have work to do. For a consumer it is an annoyance. For a business it is a work stoppage issue that can result in bankruptcy. When the Supreme Court, or a federal appeals court, shoots the whole thing down then I'll feel confident about engaging in such risks. Until then, frankly, I prefer not to deal with the issue.

      --
      "[I]t is a wise man who admits the limits of his knowledge or skill, and that pretending either causes harm." --Terry Go
  4. This could be very cool for demoing Linux apps by multiplexo · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Right now you have live CDs that you can boot from to run Linux on a Windows machine without touching the hard drive, but you then have to reboot the machine into Windows to run your Doze stuff, now you could run Linux apps in your Windows environment. Another cool application might be a virtual machine that runs your browser and another one that runs your e-mail, get a virus? Not a problem, it's isolated in the virtual sandbox. I haven't worked with vmWare in a long time, how does the performance stack up these days? I might have to get a copy and play around with this.

    --
    cheap labor conservatives - they want to keep you hungry enough to be thankful for minimum wage.
    1. Re:This could be very cool for demoing Linux apps by cerelib · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you check out their prepackaged virtual machines you will see one called "Browser Appliance". I think it is essentially a sandbox machine that just runs a browser isolated from your host OS.

    2. Re:This could be very cool for demoing Linux apps by jdray · · Score: 2, Interesting

      How about that I could create a Windows image here at work where we use VMWare (Windows on Windows) and take it home where I would use this free tool that runs on Linux to run occasional Windows apps (Visio or TurboTax)...?

      --
      The Spoon
      Updated 6/28/2011
    3. Re:This could be very cool for demoing Linux apps by cobbaut · · Score: 1, Informative

      I haven't worked with vmWare in a long time, how does the performance stack up these days?

      I have sarge on a P4-3Ghz with 3GB RAM, this allows me to run several vmware machines (Suse 10, FC4, Solaris 9, Solaris 10, MS 2003, MS XP) simultaneously without any visible performance loss. Great for playing around with samba/postfix/whatever networking stuff...

      cheers,
      pol :)

      --
      European Linux user, living in Antwerp
    4. Re:This could be very cool for demoing Linux apps by way2trivial · · Score: 3, Insightful

      pfft.. think, limited time trials of EXPENSIVE apps,, that you can 'roll back' to the original date

      --
      every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
    5. Re:This could be very cool for demoing Linux apps by LLuthor · · Score: 1

      When you click a link in your e-mail client, how do you expect a browser to pick it up??

      And do you really want to update 39 (the number of apps I have running at the moment) systems when there is a patch or update?

      --
      LL
    6. Re:This could be very cool for demoing Linux apps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      VMware has also put out an image for a "browser appliance" (which is an ubuntu hoary VM with firefox). Pretty cool.

    7. Re:This could be very cool for demoing Linux apps by Trigun · · Score: 3, Funny

      This would be perfect for my office. In fact the only thing better would be if I could get virtual employees. Causing problems? No problem, just load another secretary image.

    8. Re:This could be very cool for demoing Linux apps by Cromac · · Score: 1

      817 meg after unzipping that "Browser Appliance". Seems a bit on the heavy side for just a browser. I haven't run it yet but I hope theres more to it than just Mozilla.

    9. Re:This could be very cool for demoing Linux apps by notb4dinner · · Score: 4, Insightful

      By doing that you're still breaking the license agreement so it's really no better than pirating them.

    10. Re:This could be very cool for demoing Linux apps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The "Browser Appliance" is actually just Ubuntu Linux...

    11. Re:This could be very cool for demoing Linux apps by TopSpin · · Score: 1

      Linux apps in your Windows environment.

      CoLinux

      --
      Lurking at the bottom of the gravity well, getting old
    12. Re:This could be very cool for demoing Linux apps by diogenes57 · · Score: 1

      Stealing software...insightful? Hrmph
      Good thing FOSS is doing well, I certainly wouldn't make any commercial software with this attitude coming from geeks.

    13. Re:This could be very cool for demoing Linux apps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      They leave a lot of room on the disk for your, uh, "browser cache."

    14. Re:This could be very cool for demoing Linux apps by Bingo+Foo · · Score: 1

      It's not Mozilla, its W3. I hope that explains it.

      --
      taken! (by Davidleeroth) Thanks Bingo Foo!
    15. Re:This could be very cool for demoing Linux apps by KillShill · · Score: 1

      sounds like VMWare is a DMCA circumvention device...

      --
      Science : Proprietary , Knowledge : Open Source
    16. Re:This could be very cool for demoing Linux apps by Snaller · · Score: 1

      Assuming you have agreed to anything.

      --
      If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
    17. Re:This could be very cool for demoing Linux apps by skiman1979 · · Score: 1

      As far as VMware performance, I haven't run into much problem running it on my system. I'm running an AMD Athlon XP 3200+ 512 megs RAM. This system is dual-boot with XP Pro and Gentoo Linux. I have VMware installed in XP and use it to host Windows 2000 Server (for evaluation and testing) and also have VMware set up to boot my Gentoo system directly from my hard drive partitions (XP and Gentoo on same drive). My system does slow down a bit if I have more than 1 OS running under VMware, but for general use with a single guest OS, it's not bad. For example, I've booted my Gentoo system under VMware to upgrade the world files and with all the compiling, I was still able to use XP (the host OS without much of a problem). However, YMMV.

      Just my $0.02

      --
      Having a smoking section in a public restaurant is like having a peeing section in a public swimming pool.
    18. Re:This could be very cool for demoing Linux apps by grokster · · Score: 1
      Seems a bit on the heavy side for just a browser.

      It's actually Ubuntu Linux customized to run Firefox in full screen mode like a kiosk...

    19. Re:This could be very cool for demoing Linux apps by grokster · · Score: 1
      I think it is essentially a sandbox machine that just runs a browser isolated from your host OS.

      It's actually Ubuntu Linux customized to run Firefox in full screen mode like a kiosk...

  5. Gee, that's nice. by RLiegh · · Score: 5, Interesting

    However, given the compatibility problems with previous versions of VMWare I am not sure how much use it will be to people who download Open Source VMs off of the web to run (and I assume that's part of who this is aimed at). I've read a couple of places, for instance, that the current version of VMWare won't run the VMWare installation of Plan 9 that you can download from Bell Labs.

    That said, you can run Qemu with kernel acceleration on Linux, FreeBSD (a platform VMWare doesn't even support) and 2000/XP and get pretty good performance - and it's probably a better option than a mere 'runtime' given that not only does it support an additional platform (FreeBSD), but you can create a VM on one platform and run it on all the others (even ones w/out accerlation, such as NetBSD -though you really would not want to).

    1. Re:Gee, that's nice. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      FreeBSD (a platform VMWare doesn't even support)

      Not true at all:

      http://www.vmware.com/support/ws5/doc/ws_newguest_ tools_freebsd.html

      Any questions?

    2. Re:Gee, that's nice. by RLiegh · · Score: 1

      By 'support' I meant that VMWare, Inc does not make a native binary which you can run on FreeBSD. They make binaries for Linux, and for Windows...if you run anything else, you either do without, or you use pkgsrc or FreeBSD ports (which uses a series of fairly crude hacks to get the Linux binary of an old version of VMWare to run on *BSD).

    3. Re:Gee, that's nice. by vigyanik · · Score: 1
      So let me get your arguments straight... a) This free runtime would suck because it doesn't run a Plan 9 vm. b) Since you guess VMware doesn't support freebsd, you recommend Qemu to run linux, freebsd and win*.

      Well, my friend, that's not only twisting the facts, it's wrong.

      Plan 9 is an unsupported OS and linux/win* are. So is freebsd. Any vm created in a supported OS will run.

      Secondly, Qemu's performance is way worse than VMware's.

    4. Re:Gee, that's nice. by RLiegh · · Score: 1

      I think I was quite clear in my post, actually:

      >a) This free runtime would suck because it doesn't run a Plan 9 vm.

      No, this no-cost (NOT 'free') runtime is less than optimal because it does not support older virtual machines which you can find out on the internet (Plan 9 was only an example; but basically VMWare 5 often has problems with running virtual OS installs created by older versions of VMWare)

      >b) Since you guess VMware doesn't support freebsd, you recommend Qemu to run linux, freebsd and win*.

      Since VMWare does not build a native binary for any platform other than Linux and Windows, I recommend using software which does run on other platforms (at least until the unlikely day I can download a native binary for FreeBSD which will run without Linux emulation) so that you have Virtual Machines which are ready to go in the event you install NetBSD or OSX or whatever.

    5. Re:Gee, that's nice. by Dahan · · Score: 1
      Since VMWare does not build a native binary for any platform other than Linux and Windows ...

      Why do you care? If FreeBSD will run the Linux binary with no performance degradation and with all the features that it would have if it were running on Linux, what difference does it make? I've never tried running VMWare under FreeBSD, so perhaps there are problems. You didn't mention any though, and in my experience, Linux apps run excellently on FreeBSD.

    6. Re:Gee, that's nice. by RLiegh · · Score: 1

      There are two problems:

      1)configuration: setting up the emulated kernel drivers is obscure, to be polite; personally speaking I've never managed to get them to work.

      2)the port only lets you use select older versions of VMWare (versions 4 and 2, if I remember correctly); you can't simply download the latest (or even a decently recent) version of VMware, you have to use the one that is available with the ports -assuming, of course, that you have the appropriate version's license key (which, for the versions available through the pkgsrc/ports you can only get via warez channels).

      I'm a huge fan of pkgsrc and BSD, but VMware is a case where (through no fault of the ports or pkgsrc folk) they just don't cut it.

    7. Re:Gee, that's nice. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      An Qemu does? You can call a Qemu 800 number at 2:00am when your Plan9 (or Linux, or BSD, or Windows, or Novell, or Solaris 86) VM won't load and they'll walk you through fixing it?

      Yeah, I didn't think so. Nothing is supported on Qemu. It's a free (and inferior) product that happens to do some of the same stuff that VMware does. Stop drinking that fanboy tea, zealot.

    8. Re:Gee, that's nice. by LurkerXXX · · Score: 1

      As someone who's wanted to run VMWare on BSD or OpenBSD for quite a while, let me tell you, I've tried and there are problems. Only ancient versions of VMWare work, and those are only by a real hack. I've emailed and phoned VMWare about it, and there apparently have no interest in making it work on FreeBSD as a host system.

    9. Re:Gee, that's nice. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Qemu is great. However, a missing feature is proper USB support, although it doesn't work properly for every device on VMWare either. I tried to use a Garmin GPS device with VMWare and it does not work with VMWare 5. I could access the device by mapping a pts to a serial port of my VMWare and redirecting the input/output of my usb port on linux on the pts. Is there a way in Qemu to define serial ports in the same manner?

    10. Re:Gee, that's nice. by jschrod · · Score: 1
      All problems that I had with USB devices in VMware were caused by Linux loading some special module. Placing that module in hotplug's blacklist solved the problem.

      Of course, if you need USB 2.0, you're currently lost with all virtual machine products.

      --

      Joachim

      People don't write Manifestos any more -- what's going on in this world? [Frank Zappa]

  6. Response to new alternatives by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Anything free out of VMWare these days seems more like a response to free competitors like QEMU (or it's faster virtualization form KQEMU) than anything else.

    Still, in the time between QEMU catches up to VMWare feature-wise it's nice to have a legal-but-hobbled copy.

    1. Re:Response to new alternatives by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, what makes you think QEMU could catch up with VMware, *ever* ?

      QEMU is an emulator, it can never get as fast as a direct execution and binary translation based system like VMware.
      There is the KQEMU module as you mentionned, but that's not open source and it's a one-man operation, while VMware has hundred of engineers working on its products.

      I have a lot of respect for QEMU author Fabrice Bellard and QEMU is a great demonstration of his skills, but I dont think he can catch up.

    2. Re:Response to new alternatives by tylernt · · Score: 2, Interesting

      There is a GPL re-implementation of KQEMU called QVM86 or something like that. Still alpha-quality, though.

      And to be honest, I generally see *no* performance improvement with KQEMU loaded vs. not loaded. A bug I'm sure, but it's been there for at least the last two versions. Anyway, sometimes I get bluescreens with KQEMU loaded, so I just don't bother. At least QEMU is faster than Bochs.

      QEMU is pretty good for what it is, considering the price. Win2k runs acceptably fast, though of course XP and 2003 are dog slow. However the QEMU UI is dreadful (command line based) and the networking setup is arcane and poorly documented compared to VMWare though. Fortunately there are add-on UIs for QEMU to address one of those issues, and for the other I just stuck eth0 in a bridge and hacked the QEMU network script to create tun/tap devices and insert them into my bridge automatically. If those two things were addressed out-of-the-box, QEMU would be a much more polished product. Fast? No, but it gets the job done.

      --
      DRM 'manages access' in the same way that a prison 'manages freedom'
    3. Re:Response to new alternatives by Spit · · Score: 1

      Anything free out of VMWare these days seems more like a response to free competitors

      That's the whole point of competitive capitalism.

      --
      POKE 36879,8
    4. Re:Response to new alternatives by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "However the QEMU UI is dreadful (command line based) and the networking setup is arcane and poorly documented compared to VMWare though."

      this is ironic. I ditched vmware JUST because it was
      terribly difficult to integrate in my network setup -
      and it insisted to mess with with installing stuff in /etc/init.d - and install all kind of crap for GNOME/KDE
      menus, its own dhcp and samba servers, etc.
      And there is apparently no way to install it
      in a separate tree other than rewrite that dreaded,
      horrible perl install script.

      network setup with qemu is EASY - and writing a little
      program that pipes a fd descriptor and a tap
      interface is not rocket science if you can't find
      one.

  7. Great move by dtfinch · · Score: 1

    At least until someone writes a program to build compatible VM's, if they haven't already. The low risk trialware aspect of this is pretty interesting, and you know that none of the free VM's will run Windows, if Microsoft has anything to say about it.

    1. Re:Great move by dtfinch · · Score: 1

      Bah. It wouldn't install on Ubuntu Breezy on my first try. It didn't have a compatible module for my kernel, and offered to build one that might be, but my gcc version didn't match the version used to compile my kernel, so it couldn't go any further. It was way too invasive for comfort anyways, wanting to add kernel module and startup scripts without giving a reason why it had to when competing software doesn't.

    2. Re:Great move by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      just compile your kernel again with the same config, and install.

  8. feeling pressure from xen by xzvf · · Score: 1

    Sounds like they are feeling pressure from Xen and are trying to prevent the truely free OSS solution from gaining mindshare. They make a good product, but cost and closed source will limit them in the long run.

    1. Re:feeling pressure from xen by RLiegh · · Score: 1

      >but cost and closed source will limit them in the long run.
      However, litigation and software patents (VMWare has a shitload of patents) will be enough to ensure that they outlast their OSS competition (in the case of patents, will be the way in which they bury said competition).

    2. Re:feeling pressure from xen by DaHat · · Score: 1

      Doubtful... my bet would be competing with Microsoft Virtual PC which is free to any serious developer with an MSDN subscription and is used in a world where large amounts of developing, testing and demoing is done inside of DLed VPC images.

    3. Re:feeling pressure from xen by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "Sounds like they are feeling pressure from Xen and are trying to prevent the truely free OSS solution from gaining mindshare. They make a good product, but cost and closed source will limit them in the long run."

      I really don't want to be a smart *ss, but whenever I read these sorts of comments here on /. I wonder "just what alternate universe are these people living in?"

      I doubt most of the corporate types at VMware know that Xen even exists - let alone sees it as any sort of "competition".

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    4. Re:feeling pressure from xen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uh... My organization spent about (cue Dr Evil finder) 20 million in HP hardware last year, so HP flew us to Houston (pre hurricane, thank goodness) for a future product brief. 2 examples: 1 hour briefing on new low wattage AMD processors and 2 2 (that's 4 hours total) hour briefings on Xen. Plus, 1 2 hour briefing on VMWare. 5 minutes or so were spent on Virtual Smurfer 2005.

    5. Re:feeling pressure from xen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You've got to be shittin' me.

      VMWare knows *exactly* what their competition is like. They know who uses their products (lots of Linux folks who don't want to run crappy Windows on their hardware). They probably have employees reading slashdot right at this moment.

      They make a low-level tool. That means they are a lot closer to the customers than you think.

    6. Re:feeling pressure from xen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

      Solaris' zones are big news. Xen is big news. If the folks at VMWare don't know about it, then they're not doing their research very well and they're going to get walked all over in the near future.

  9. I predict a major use for this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...will be to deliver flash ads to those users that refuse to install it on their host machines.

  10. Wondering by umbrellasd · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Has anyone had luck with running VMWare on Linux and using a virtual machine to play Windows games? I play two online games and they are the only reason that I use Windows as my primary operating system. Not familiar with the performance concerns, but it looks like I could prepare a Windows gaming VM and run it when I game, and then work on other tasks in my preferred Linux environment. Googling...

    1. Re:Wondering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I used to run Starcraft on it perfectly, including BattleNet games. Of course, we're talking about a game that ran at a playable speed on a 486 machine I built in 1994.

    2. Re:Wondering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      AFAIK there aren't passthrough 3d drivers available with VMWARE (just vga-only without 3d accel), which is the primary reason people don't do things like that.

    3. Re:Wondering by fodi · · Score: 1

      Sure about this? I thought that installing "VMWare Tools" added video acceleration. Of course there's still going to be a performance hit. Can anyone verify?

    4. Re:Wondering by richmaine · · Score: 2, Informative

      Games and emulation just don't go together. That applies to pretty much all kinds of emulation - VMWare, Virtual PC, whatever. Games just tend to require performance that emulation can't deliver. Plus games are often picky about hardware such as video cards.

      Of course, this overgeneralizes. If you have some text-based game, or even a graphics one old enough to not strain current hardware, then maybe. But generally speaking, assume that games won't work acceptably.

      I've used VMWare (though it has been a while). It worked fine for my technical applications. Allowed me to run Windows compilers and make Windows executables of my programs for ussers that wanted such. But forget games.

    5. Re:Wondering by Tiny+Elvis · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I had an old game (magic the gathering) that ran on Win 98. I had problems running it on win 2k mainly due to the fact it would run too fast and was unplayable. I heard running in under 98 made it run the proper speed so I setup a Win 98 VMWARE instance to play it. As the others replying have said, you can forget running anything that requires 3d. It makes a great sandbox to test other stuff in though.

    6. Re:Wondering by civilizedINTENSITY · · Score: 1

      In terms of the "feel" of it, WinXP *seemed* faster running under VMWare under Linux, than running natively on the same hardware. I kept the dualboot option to play DVDs, but would boot Linux if I had to work in WinXP (VisualStudio, and Mathematica).

    7. Re:Wondering by BushCheney08 · · Score: 1

      Games and emulation just don't go together.

      Nonsense! I've been playing the gold box Pool of Radiance on DOS 6.22 on my 4 year old iBook under VPC the past few weeks. I even had to resort to using the copy of MoSlo that came on the install CD to keep things slow enough. The hardest part about the whole thing was finding an OS X utility to extract the CAB files on the gold box install disk. Why they wrapped up a DOS game in a 32bit installer I don't know. Thankfully they just stuck all the original DOS files in there, along with uninst.dll and some pif file. And yes, before you ask, I did try dosbox. My machine is just too slow to handle it.

      --
      Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
    8. Re:Wondering by Bishop · · Score: 1

      The vmware tools just installs an optomized vga driver. There is no 3d acceleration, and little, if any, 2d acceleration.

      Transgaming would work better.

    9. Re:Wondering by TheBeowulf · · Score: 1, Interesting

      First, anything is possible with the latest incarnations of VMWare workstation. VMWare even has "experimental" 3D rendering capabilities that do allow 3D games to run in the virtual world at a mere 20% performance hit. Now, here is the caveat and it is a big one... The 3D package requires direct ties to your video card drivers to handle the VM's DirectX calls. This is a gift and a curse... it means you're still stuck running a windows Host OS and you have to have a stable driver set.

      It is my guess that Linux support as the Host will come to nVidia card owners long before ATI owners; mostly due to ATI's abysmal 3D Linux driver set to date.

      I personally have experimented with these tools and basically found that for the games that ran only in win95/98 and choke on 2000/XP, running XP as the host and older versions of windows as the Guest yielded a playable effort. For now, think of this as an early release capability... it's about as usable as any other "pre-release" emulator. (PSX, PS2 Xbox, etc) I have also found that sound can be an issue if the game doesn't accept DirectX control, as the emulated sound card in VMWare doesn't support direct-mapped calls.

    10. Re:Wondering by alc6379 · · Score: 1

      There is no 3D acceleration in VMWare. In fact, gamers aren't even the target market. Things like VMWare workstation, GSX and ESX are meant for development, server consolodation, and virtualisation of legacy OSes still used for old applications.

      --
      I don't moderate anymore. Karma penalty for 90% fair mods? Can I mod that unfair?
    11. Re:Wondering by e**(i+pi)-1 · · Score: 1

      I do not play windows games on my virtual machines but
      applications like google earth run very smooth, essentially
      with the same speed than in windows. Just make sure to
      check OpenGL, when using Google earth.
      In general, with virtual machines, it is important to have
      enough memory. VMware is the main reason, I throw into my
      main linux boxes as much memory as I can afford.

    12. Re:Wondering by billcopc · · Score: 1

      Meh, I've played many older games in a VMwared Win98 environment when they wouldn't install/run on XP. For the rest I use DosBox, it's grand!

      Anything beats powering up that noisy old 486.

      --
      -Billco, Fnarg.com
    13. Re:Wondering by entrigant · · Score: 1

      First of all VMWare is not technically an emulator. Because of the way it works it can attain very high speeds. Second, VMWare 5 introduced experimental direct3d support into their guest windows video driver that uses OpenGL on the host machine. It is experimental and lacks features, but it does work. You mat not be able to play the latest game that requires a geforce 7800 and a 3Ghz processor just to run decently in 800x600, but many gamers have an extensive library of games that would be possible to play if this direct3d support matures.

    14. Re:Wondering by tylernt · · Score: 1

      On a slight tangent, you can get around the poor video performance in VMWare, QEMU etc by enabling Terminal Services or RDP server, then RDPing in from the host OS. This bypasses the video emulation and can be much more pleasant (unless you're doing something that doesn't play well with RDP).

      --
      DRM 'manages access' in the same way that a prison 'manages freedom'
    15. Re:Wondering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The virtual machine does not virtualize graphics hardware - most VM's virtualize an S3 Trio 64 or equiv - which can barely play 2d games.

    16. Re:Wondering by OneArmedMan · · Score: 1

      the latest VMware Workstation 5.5 Beta that i have been playing with does have "experimental" Direct3D support, but at this stage it only supports older D3D versions, 7 or 8 i think.

      I tried playing Quake 1 and it did seem to work in software mode, but when i tried all my other exe files for it , all sorts of nasty things happend.

      But those other exe files were things like GLQuake, Tenibre ( spl ) and other recompiled exe files with extra fancy features, so im not all that supprised that it didnt handle them so well.

    17. Re:Wondering by Decker-Mage · · Score: 1
      They keep putting *experimental* (yes, they put asterisks around it in the docs) support for D3D in the betas but so far I haven't had much luck with it. The problem here is that Direct 3D lives up to its name and wants to go bang on the hardware directly. Well, when you are in a running a VM on top of another OS that can get more than a little hairy, especially if there is anything else out there that is using D3D to do anything (and you be surprised at the amount of stuff that does that you weren't aware of!). It would help if I had more lower-end D3D stuff laying around to play with. Time to dig out the old CD's from the box at the back or the closet to see if I can find any as I really didn't give it a serious test in any of the prior betas that included it.

      I wouldn't even think of trying it on Linux though. That's a match made in hell! OTOH, if anyone can get it to work, they may. I remember when Solaris 10 was *experimental* and it works fine now. I finally got to see it in action without slicking a drive.

      --
      "[I]t is a wise man who admits the limits of his knowledge or skill, and that pretending either causes harm." --Terry Go
    18. Re:Wondering by Slashcrap · · Score: 1

      There is no 3D acceleration in VMWare.

      This isn't true. The latest version has experimental Direct 3D support. It can map Direct 3D calls to OpenGL on Linux.

      Whether it's usable yet is another matter, but it is there.

      In case of doubt, try googling for "vmware direct3d support" and reading the first link (or any of the other 18,000 for that matter).

    19. Re:Wondering by jeks · · Score: 1

      Games and emulation just don't go together. That applies to pretty much all kinds of emulation - VMWare, Virtual PC, whatever. Games just tend to require performance that emulation can't deliver. Plus games are often picky about hardware such as video cards.

      What about MAME? It emulates thousands of games...

    20. Re:Wondering by Bishop · · Score: 1
      Good tip. It is something I do as well.

      Even with the vmware driver Windows video performance under vmware is really really slow. Slower then you would expect even with the VMware overhead. I find the the vmware driver for X11 to be faster. X under VMware is often useable when Windows isn't.

      With Linux VMs I use X. With a windows host I use the Cygwin X packages. With a linux host I use the Xnest server. I enable XDMCP in xdm/gdm/kdm and start X with the option:
      -query <ip_of_virtual_machine>
  11. Or you could download Ubuntu by Solr_Flare · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Unbuntu has two different versions. One is an install CD, the other is a run CD that lets you launch linux from disc without installing anything. Now, of course, the CD version is going to be more limited, but given that you can read/write fat32 and network NTFS(and read local NTFS) you can still do a decent bit with it. It's not bad at all if you just want to give linux a whirl and see what it is all about/teach yourself how to use some aspects of linux.

    --
    You are who you are, let no one tell you different. But, never close your mind to a new point of view.
    1. Re:Or you could download Ubuntu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you can even order them for free (as in beer) https://shipit.ubuntu.com/

    2. Re:Or you could download Ubuntu by Fred_A · · Score: 1

      Doesn't pretty much every desktop distribution have a live CD version nowadays ?
      I haven't looked much into this but even Mandrake had one ages ago (they have "move" nowadays which is supposed to work ok), I'd be surprised if others hadn't followed since. Or of course there also are all the knoppix variants.

      At any rate there are lots to choose from nowadays, including Ubuntu of course. So anyway, the grandparent poster might want to use a rw CD and try a few to get a feel for the various flavours available.

      --

      May contain traces of nut.
      Made from the freshest electrons.
  12. Excellent for "black sheep" corporate Linux users. by GiMP · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Need to run Linux at work but corporate policy won't let you? (or plan to install Linux anyway, but need that killer-app for Windows?)... Boss won't buy you a copy of VMWare?

    Buy your own copy for personal use and simply install this "player" on your work PC. Need multiple users wanting to emulate an OS and don't have terribly high demands? One copy of vmware... multiple players.

    I'm drooling.

  13. Re:Soft bigotry of "Inc." suffix? by kebes · · Score: 2, Informative

    I think they wrote "VMWare Inc." rather than "VMWare" to avoid confusion... because alot of people, when they hear "VMWare" will think of the application/product, and not the company. Yes, I know that it would be hard for a product to release another product, but still. The "Inc." qualifier was just thrown in to make it obvious that they were talking about the company.

  14. Re:Soft bigotry of "Inc." suffix? by croddy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I suppose this is only a problem if you're already bigoted against anything "Inc."

  15. USB adapters... by Gopal.V · · Score: 3, Informative

    So far, no virtualization systems I've used has ever supported dynamic USB support.

    I wonder what kernels their Linux player supports usb support. I assume it will be something like FC4 or RHEL ?.

    Can someone who has downloaded tell me how the usb hotplugging works for you ?.

    1. Re:USB adapters... by Malc · · Score: 1

      If I understand what you mean by dynamic USB support, then VMWare does it. I've used it with Windows MCE on VMWare.

    2. Re:USB adapters... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Malc is correct.
      Certainly on windows, just make sure that you've clicked on the VM-ware desktop to make the VM-ware window the 'active' window in the host OS.
      Now just attach you USB device. The VM machine will take control - NOT the host machine.

    3. Re:USB adapters... by ebob9 · · Score: 1, Informative

      USB hotplugging works great for me on my thinkpad with FC4 + VM Workstation 5. I have a windows VM, and use USB devices on that. I have a USB serial adapter for my laptop, and have no problems with the VM hot-plugging it. I however have to add "usbserial" and one other module (mct_u232 I think) to /etc/hotplug/blacklist to prevent linux from trying to load drivers for it first. I also sync my Windows Mobile PDA to the VM, I just had to /etc/hotplug/blacklist the ipaq modules.

    4. Re:USB adapters... by AmigaAvenger · · Score: 1

      the trick is, at least if you run linux as your host, is that linux kernel will often grab the device before vmware has a chance. this happens to me all the time on usb hard drives/keychains. a simple rmmod fixes that right up though...

    5. Re:USB adapters... by dougnet · · Score: 3, Informative

      I work for a large company and we have a number of VMWare Workstation licenses. I downloaded the vmplayer today and used my existing VMWare workstation image with it (W2K image on Linux host). It started up fine. I then plugged the USB connector for my Kyocera 7135 Palm phone into my Linux system and hit the hotsync button. A "button" appeared accross the menu bar of the VMWare window with the title of the USB device (something like "Kyocera phone"). I could click on the botton to toggle as to whether or not VMWare was "connected" to the device so the guest OS could use it. What I don't remember is if the focus of the window determines whether or not it initially shows up as attached or disconnected. I believe the first time I did it, the hot sync with my phone started automatically. The second time I did it, I had to click on the soft botton on the menu bar to attach to the USB device. This may have been the result of my window focus at the time I hit the hot sync button.

    6. Re:USB adapters... by Malor · · Score: 1

      With the regular full Workstation version (I have no need for Player, but I assume it works the same way), you choose, from a dropdown menu, a USB device that you would like to connect to the virtual machine. VMWare 'unplugs' it from the host OS, and plugs it into the guest OS, until you quit the program or detach the device again.

      What I did was to attach my USB hub to the virtual machine, and then plug flash modules in and out. That works fine, so I presume you'd be able to hotplug anything else you wanted. The guest just needs to 'own' the hub.

      I think in earlier versions, the mouse focus had something to do with hotplug events, but I *think* they have changed that to the above system.

      If you can't attach the hub to the guest, I think you'll have to plug it into the host system first, and then attach it to VMWare. That will simulate a hotplug, and will probably work for most devices.... preuming, of course, that your host OS doesn't muck anything up first.

    7. Re:USB adapters... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Player's USB support is the same as Workstation, it just has a different UI on it. No idea what you mean by "dynamic"- USB devices are definitely hotpluggable, if that's what you mean.

    8. Re:USB adapters... by Shanep · · Score: 1

      So far, no virtualization systems I've used has ever supported dynamic USB support.

      VMWare 4 in Windows does this just fine.

      --
      War crimes, torture, lies, illegal spying... Would someone give Bush a blowjob, already, so he can be impeached?
    9. Re:USB adapters... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can somewhat work around this by blacklisting the appropriate modules, so that they will never be inserted automatically (of course you can still insert them manually if needed)

      In the long term the fix is for VMware to integrate more with the HAL subsystem and tell it not to hotplug devices which VMware wants for itself.

  16. Speed Issues by nurb432 · · Score: 1

    I run both, and have very little trouble with VMware and the OS that is being run under it.

    If you want to compare speeds, QEMU still lags way behind VMware, and unless you have one hell of a machine, you cant use it in production as its way too slow.

    QEMU also has major troubles with hosting windows installs, which is what most people in business use VMWare for. ( virtual servers )

    Dont get me wrong QEMU is a great thing and its improving quickly, but i would still not trust it for production, yet.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  17. Another option by technoid_ · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you dont want to figure out what is missing with the VMware offering, Parallels is offering 60 day trial licenses for its Parallels Workstation 2.0 Beta3. Check out www.parallels.com

    Disclaimer: i have no affiliation to Parallels, I have just been trying out the product.

    technoid_

    --
    Two wrongs don't make a right, but 3 lefts do - Lew of GO magazine
    1. Re:Another option by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Why would I want to use a time-limited demo when I can simply download VMWare, spend five minutes finding a keygen for it, and then have a permanent VM solution? (this question also applies to MS's Virtual PC, I should add).

    2. Re:Another option by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A comment condoning software piracy (Use of keygen) is insightful? A sad commentary on the state of /. these days

    3. Re:Another option by Thing+1 · · Score: 1

      Site is currently down.

      --
      I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
    4. Re:Another option by leuk_he · · Score: 1

      Why would I want to use a time-limited demo when I can simply download VMWare, spend five minutes finding a keygen for it...

      If you run a company earn money with your nerd skills, it is not only fair to actually buy the software, it might cost you a lot more if a disgruntled (ex-)employee reports you to the BSA.

      Buy it you write any software, after this comment, I am happy to create a keygen for it.

    5. Re:Another option by paulhar · · Score: 1

      I found it amazing that it's got to 2.0 since being initially announced only a couple of weeks ago. There also isn't a "buy now" section (or even a price) on it's buy page: http://www.parallels.com/en/buyonline (found from the docs)

      As for seeing what you're missing - I didn't see anything particularly unique about it. All I could think was... woo. I did notice that there wasn't mention of DirectX support, so it isn't exactly brimming with features.

      Lastly - why buy from these guys since I can just buy an established product *that is known to work well* from VMware, or something that may be ok soon from Microsoft. Or wait for Xen and get it for free.

  18. Re:Soft bigotry of "Inc." suffix? by temojen · · Score: 1

    VMWare Inc is the company, VMWare is their flagship product.

  19. Re:Soft bigotry of "Inc." suffix? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The day a product releases another product I'll REALLY worry.

  20. This is cool by jtstowell · · Score: 1

    Go away cynics. This is awesome.

    I run into so many clueless tech support people that I've just been dying to send a VM to. Now I can. This is sweet!

    Also, I have the win32 version of VMWare 5, but not the Linux version... like I said, sweet!

    --
    ... Seen a paperless office lately?
    1. Re:This is cool by Weaselmancer · · Score: 1

      I agree completely. This is absolutely *awesome*.

      VMware, you guys rock. Very very generous and much appreciated.

      --
      Weaselmancer
      rediculous.
    2. Re:This is cool by jtstowell · · Score: 2, Informative

      Not only that, but it works!

      I'm posting this from FireFox 1.0.7 running on Windows 95 4.00.950 (heh. it was on a bet... and the smallest image I had lying around) from within a VMware Player instance running on Suse Linux 9.3 Pro. At 1024x768 resolution with good graphics.

      Had a little trouble with compiling the VMware kernel modules, but it was a quick fix.

      Oh, and my mouse wheel doesn't work... :-)

      Tom

      --
      ... Seen a paperless office lately?
  21. Re:this does what? by JamesTRexx · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Not just the VMWare images, but (more interesting for our company) also Virtual PC/Server images.
    At least, that's what they claim. Tested the player with VPC and VServer images, but they all stop with an error in the log about importing something into the registry which is not in registry format. But then again it's still in beta.

    --
    home
  22. VM Machine Building For Free by nurb432 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You can get a free 30 day license from VMware for their regular product.

    Make as many VM's you want and when it expires you can still use the 'runtime' thing.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
    1. Re:VM Machine Building For Free by way2trivial · · Score: 1

      make one, (virtual machine) and download another 30 day license.

      save it...

      when it runs out, roll back that VM

      --
      every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
    2. Re:VM Machine Building For Free by nurb432 · · Score: 1

      Its not 30 day of use, its 30 days on a calendar basis, from date of issue.

      --
      ---- Booth was a patriot ----
    3. Re:VM Machine Building For Free by JesseMcDonald · · Score: 1

      And just how does the software know what the real date is? Just don't syncronize the clock with the host system. You could even use a LD_PRELOAD wrapper to fake any time you wanted by overriding the system "get time" library calls, eliminating the need nested virtual machines.

      --
      "The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." - Bastiat
    4. Re:VM Machine Building For Free by damiam · · Score: 1

      At that point you might as well save yourself the trouble and pirate the damn thing.

      --
      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
    5. Re:VM Machine Building For Free by JesseMcDonald · · Score: 1

      Wasn't that what this thread was about in the first place?

      In any event, using LD_PRELOAD should be easier (at least under Linux) if you know which routine it's using (try `ltrace`), more responsive at runtime than using nested virtual machines, and more permanent than setting back the virtual machine's clock (although this is debateable - 35 years (since 1970, the epoch) is a long time).

      --
      "The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." - Bastiat
    6. Re:VM Machine Building For Free by pegr · · Score: 2, Informative

      At that point you might as well save yourself the trouble and pirate the damn thing
       
      Actually, if you get on their mailing list, they will invite you to one of their half-day pep rallies and give you a free copy of Workstation...

    7. Re:VM Machine Building For Free by damiam · · Score: 1

      By "pirate" I meant "download a cracked full version", which sounds easier to me than fooling around with LD_PRELOAD.

      --
      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
    8. Re:VM Machine Building For Free by Lucractius · · Score: 1

      but does the rally have free lunch and free b33r? :P

      --
      XML - A clever joke would be here if /. didn't mangle tag brackets.
    9. Re:VM Machine Building For Free by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      At some point the thread was about what the company legally lets you do: download a 30-day trial, use it to make all the images you can imagine needing, and then use the free player to run the images. Perfectly legal and sanctioned by the company, although they would probably prefer if you gave them money as well, and it would be nice to do so. There's not even a hint of fraud here, as opposed to the suggestion that the trial version might be tricked to continue beyond 30 days.

    10. Re:VM Machine Building For Free by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      # apt-get install datefudge

      $ dafefudge 01/01/2001 vmware &

      Using it for months...

    11. Re:VM Machine Building For Free by nurb432 · · Score: 1

      Or you could just buy a license after the trial period.

      --
      ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  23. As long as you don't expect 3D accel. by khasim · · Score: 2, Informative

    The video card it emulates is pretty low end. It's acceptable for the old SimCity games (I've tried them) but not for any modern shooter.

    There is also the problem where you're still sharing your CPU with the virtual machine so you may experience pauses in the game. Not really noticable with strategy and turn based games, but it may be a problem with shooters.

    The good news is that you can load up different Windows versions for different games (you do still have the licenses, right?). So you can run Win95 or Win98 or Win2K or WinXP if you want.

    DOS works okay for most games, but the VMWare sound emulation doesn't match any of the old 1980's-era games that I tried.

    1. Re:As long as you don't expect 3D accel. by Plaid+Phantom · · Score: 1

      So this would be something that SwiftShader would be ideal for, then?

      --
      All comments are properties and trademarks of the voices in my head. Not like I'm gonna claim them.
    2. Re:As long as you don't expect 3D accel. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If ideal means "run slowly", sure.

  24. Xen is not a competitor to VMWare by McSpew · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Sounds like they are feeling pressure from Xen and are trying to prevent the truely free OSS solution from gaining mindshare. They make a good product, but cost and closed source will limit them in the long run.

    Xen is not a competitor to VMWare, at least, not right now, it isn't. Xen requires the guest OS to be built with explicit support for Xen. VMWare doesn't require that. Xen can't run any build of Windows or NetWare, but VMWare can.

    It's clear that this product is a shot across Microsoft's bow. Ever since MS bought Connectix, they've been gunning for VMWare. Those who've tried both VirtualPC and VMWare Workstation have almost universally preferred VMWare Workstation (I haven't tried VirtualPC, but VMWare Workstation rocks), but VirtualPC is still cheaper than VMWare ($129 vs. $199). VMWare has also recently announced that it's hoping to standardize the virtual machine software industry around common VM file formats (VMWare's, of course). If, by using a free VMWare Player, they can get everybody else to adopt their VM formats, they'll have won that war before MS can even get into the battle.

    This doesn't really cannibalize sales of VMWare Workstation, even if others figure out how to create VMWare-compatible VMs from other applications, because those of us who use VMWare Workstation like all of its features (and there are lots). What it really does is seed the market for VMWare's real money makers--GSX Server and ESX Server. MS has nothing close to those products right now, and VMWare's hoping to permanently establish themselves as the market leaders before MS can get a comparable product on the market.

    1. Re:Xen is not a competitor to VMWare by bhtooefr · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well, here's an MS VPC fan.

      I'll admit, I haven't played with VMWare WS5.

      VPC is also slower, from what I've seen.

      However, VPC emulates more standard hardware that OSes (especially old ones) support out of the box. Important when you're playing with an old OS, and you need driver support.

    2. Re:Xen is not a competitor to VMWare by rteunissen · · Score: 1

      Actually, in order to run VMWare Workstation on Linux you need the kernel module, which has to be either custom built or you have to be running one of the supported distributions.

      But VMWare Workstation still rocks.

    3. Re:Xen is not a competitor to VMWare by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      You do know that you don't have to have the exact same feature set in order to be a competitor in the business world, right? Products that perform similar functions can still compete.

    4. Re:Xen is not a competitor to VMWare by dosguru · · Score: 1

      MS has been demoing their product here at VMWorld and they are very much trying to take on ESX/GSX. Their ability to cluster is actually better than ESX, but I expect VMWare to fix that soon in a ESX 3.1. VS2005r2 is definatly a competitor for a plain GSX install, but VMWare's managment utilites and product line will keep GSX on top in that niche.

      VMWare also has NSA backing on security abilites, does MS?

    5. Re:Xen is not a competitor to VMWare by xzvf · · Score: 1

      I think vmware is a solid viable product today, but I was thinking long term. Maybe I'm wrong, but Xen looks a lot like Linux in the mid 90's. They are riding high on the leading edge of x86 virtualization, and ESX server is impressive. There are limitations to Xen today, but it is an excellent project with tons of potential. I'm glad it's there to put pressure on EMC and Microsoft in this field.

    6. Re:Xen is not a competitor to VMWare by Opie812 · · Score: 1

      I think vmware is a solid viable product today, but I was thinking long term. Maybe I'm wrong, but Xen looks a lot like Linux in the mid 90's.

      If that's the case then it looks like VMWare has nothing to worry about for at least the next decade or so.

      :)

      --
      I'm not a nerd. Nerds are smart.
    7. Re:Xen is not a competitor to VMWare by Turtle+Master · · Score: 4, Informative
      Xen requires the guest OS to be built with explicit support for Xen. VMWare doesn't require that. Xen can't run any build of Windows or NetWare, but VMWare can.

      You haven't been paying attention. Xen will soon be able to run any build of pretty much anything on new "VT-enabled" hardware from intel. http://www.xensource.com/news/pr082305.html

    8. Re:Xen is not a competitor to VMWare by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Xen can't run any build of Windows...

      from the Xen site:

      A port of Windows XP was developed for an earlier version of Xen, but is not available for release due to licence restrictions.

      Work on Xen has been supported by UK EPSRC grant GR/S01894, Intel Research, HP Labs, Microsoft Research, Network Appliance, and XenSource Inc.

    9. Re:Xen is not a competitor to VMWare by Rich0 · · Score: 2, Informative

      In my experience custom-building isn't a big deal. You just run the config program, and it notes that it doesn't have a compatible kernel module handy, and asks you if you want to build one. As long as you have your kernel sources installed it just builds the module and runs it, and it usually doesn't take much effort. Then you just rerun the config program any time you install a new kernel.

      If you're willing to use vmware on linux I doubt the kernel module will slow you down much...

    10. Re:Xen is not a competitor to VMWare by Lucractius · · Score: 1

      while obviously not a soloution in a production enviroment, i generaly think these are the times you should be running the old hardware still :P

      which reminds me... i have to make sure i restore that blasted 8086 and turn it into a "hey look im a 8086 powered WebServing DoorStop" thing...

      --
      XML - A clever joke would be here if /. didn't mangle tag brackets.
    11. Re:Xen is not a competitor to VMWare by Lucractius · · Score: 2, Informative

      Dont forget AMD are building their own hardware virtualisation support as well and it'll be out at about the same time, Xen will be supporting this too :)

      --
      XML - A clever joke would be here if /. didn't mangle tag brackets.
    12. Re:Xen is not a competitor to VMWare by Saeger · · Score: 1
      If you're willing to use vmware on linux I doubt the kernel module will slow you down much...

      It has for many.

      If for some mysterious reason you can't get VMWare working, the "little known fix" is to install the vmware-any-any patch. This works with SuSE, Fedora, and other distros.

      --
      Power to the Peaceful
    13. Re:Xen is not a competitor to VMWare by terminal.dk · · Score: 1

      I agree that VMWare is at least a generation in front of the competitors.

      Even though Microsoft Virtual PC is much cheaper than VMWare, you will usually see VMWare used at presentations, even at MS presentations. It is by far the best product out there for x86 on x86. But since it is not a CPU emulator, you can not run x86_64 on a plain x86 CPU like with Bochs.

      Virtual PC / Virtual Server comes from the CPU emulation world (still runs on MacOS on PowerPC). Supposedly, it will be built into Windows Vista, and it supports Windows, Windows and will soon support Linux.

      VMWare runs happily with multiple VMs. It is a dog on the MS product.

      I also agree that this is trying to sell their enterprise versions. We have virtualized a few non-critical servers. But it is difficult to sell the virtualization message unless people have tried it. So opening up so many more people's eyes to virtualization will drive their enterprise market.

    14. Re:Xen is not a competitor to VMWare by bedessen · · Score: 1

      That's great and all, but seeing as it's still vaporware it really doesn't do anything to help with the current situation. The original poster is still correct that _right now_ you have to have a modified guest, which puts Xen in a completely different ballpark than VMWare. In a year or two when CPUs start to come out with additional virtualization features then things may change, but until then ....

  25. Re:Soft bigotry of "Inc." suffix? by Quadraginta · · Score: 1

    No, no, the day to worry is when a product releases an Inc., i.e. starts up its own company.

  26. osx86 by minus_273 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ha now that osx86 installation vmware image you downloaded can run on a leagal copy of vmware!

    --
    The war with islam is a war on the beast
    The war on terror is a war for peace
    1. Re:osx86 by Macka · · Score: 2, Interesting


      Actually I'm hoping that VMware will port their products to the new osx86 when it ships. I'd love to have the choice to run Linux & Windows in VMware on my first x86 Apple Mac when I get one.

  27. Coffee house computer + Flash drive by ejoe_mac · · Score: 1

    Take a flash drive running Linux + the Linux version of this, and boot a Windows VM. You could even do it in an encrypted partition so you really could have a high security self contained Win32 enviroment ;)

  28. And in other news... by williamyf · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Microsoft Released Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Visio viewers. meanwhile lotus released a viewer for Freelance Graphics.

    Now, on a more serious note, This is cool, the "Player" is far more complicated than any viewer/player out there, and the uses for the thing are intriguing. From the Web Page of VMware, collages can work on a support case and all share the same one in a VM, or you can demo apps in the confort of the VM. The page even points to VMs made available by IBM, oracle and others. Of course, question is, What is the Status of the SW that you run in the VMs, including the OS itself? In the case of FOSS, we know the answer, but in other cases, just watc out guys.

    --
    *** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
    1. Re:And in other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Umm microsoft have had viewers for all of those for a long time.

      http://www.microsoft.com/office/000/viewers.asp

  29. It's "VMware" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    Not VMWare. Not vmWare. Not VmWaRe. Not v/\/\\/\/4r3.

  30. Wish they'd finally support OS/2 as well... by D4C5CE · · Score: 2, Interesting
    ...especially as many banks would certainly want to pay for the privilege of getting another few years out of their legacy apps on that platform.

    Other than the lack of OS/2 support, however, VMWare does not seem to have any other important shortcomings, now that the free player allows to "clone and ship entire virtual machines" e.g. for the hassle-free demo and deployment of FOSS solutions.

    Besides, it's a blessing for many computer classrooms, helping in particular to make them less Microsoft-centric and saving much time for administration at the same time...

    1. Re:Wish they'd finally support OS/2 as well... by Zanthrox · · Score: 1

      I seem to recall a few years back they had a beta out that DID support OS/2. I played with it for a bit..It seemed nice and all, but the feature didn't make it into product. Guess the banks weren't quite willing to pay enough for the privilege...

    2. Re:Wish they'd finally support OS/2 as well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If vmware doesn't, Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 does. It works even using OS/2 Warp4 (with networking); there's a blog running around on Microsoft detailing how to get a variety of different network topologies going.

      It may/may not work with dongled software though...

      -Thor

  31. So, can someone upload a blank virtual machine? by karji · · Score: 1

    Can someone upload a blank virtual machine, so we can get it and install our own OSes on it and run them under VMware?

    1. Re:So, can someone upload a blank virtual machine? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Here you go!!! (I hacked VMware's website and put this up just so you could get a free VM. Power to the people. H@x0r 73h p1@n37.

  32. Browser Appliance password by BushCheney08 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Downloaded the player and their browser appliance image. Anyone know what the root password for the browser appliance is? [BTW, it's a very stripped down Ubuntu install, with Firefox, GAIM, BitTorrent, and a Terminal Server Client]

    --
    Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
    1. Re:Browser Appliance password by humuhumu · · Score: 1

      vmware

    2. Re:Browser Appliance password by dokebi · · Score: 1

      user: vmware
      passwd: vmware

      pretty easy guess, no?

      from the console:
      vmware@VMware-Ubuntu:~$ whoami
      vmware
      vmware@VMware-Ubuntu:~$

      --
      In Soviet Russia, articles before post read *you*!
    3. Re:Browser Appliance password by BushCheney08 · · Score: 1

      Yuh. I got it a few seconds after posting. I had pulled up the synaptic package manager and it wanted a password. I thought I had tried vmware, but I guess I hadn't.

      --
      Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
    4. Re:Browser Appliance password by gravij · · Score: 1

      I read a comment on OSNews that it is "vmware". Apparently he guessed it. I haven't tried it though...

    5. Re:Browser Appliance password by chungo-nzx · · Score: 2, Informative

      The browser appliance starts you as the vmware user. The vmware user has sudo permissions. The vmware password is "vmware" i.e. to get to root - Open the terminal - enter "sudo passwd root" - Type the vmware password (i.e. "vmware") - Type in the new root password - Sorted !

    6. Re:Browser Appliance password by gmcclel · · Score: 1

      After almost 10 years of Slashdot usage, this is the first time I've sought to search Slashdot for an answer instead of Google, Yahoo, etc. I was not disappointed.

      Thanks!

      --
      --- Gary McClellan
  33. Will this run BeOS? by c_forq · · Score: 1

    I've heard many virtual machines don't work with BeOS due to how BeOS's scheduler works. Does anyone know if this will run it?

    --
    Computers allow humans to make mistakes at the fastest speeds known, with the possible exception of tequila and handguns
    1. Re:Will this run BeOS? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      no it does not run on VMs, because the way it work with the hardware its totally different from how the emulated hardware on the VMs and causes BeOS to crash

    2. Re:Will this run BeOS? by thanuk · · Score: 1

      No, but MS Virtual PC runs BeOS quite well

    3. Re:Will this run BeOS? by Slashcrap · · Score: 1

      no it does not run on VMs, because the way it work with the hardware its totally different from how the emulated hardware on the VMs and causes BeOS to crash

      Yeah, right. BeOS is just so awesomely different from every other OS ever written that it will never run on a VM. It knows, man! You can't fool the BeOS!

      In reality, it runs fine on Virtual PC and I'm pretty sure it runs on VMware as an unsupported guest. In other words, there are no specific VMware drivers like you get for Windows, Linux etc.. because it's just not worth the hassle of writing them.

    4. Re:Will this run BeOS? by TimMann · · Score: 1

      Google for beos vmware and you'll find lots of reports from people who have gotten it to work. The degree of success depends on what versions of BeOS and VMware products are used. I know we run BeOS here as one of our regression tests.

  34. Can someone please upload a blank virtual machine? by karji · · Score: 1

    Can someone please upload a blank virtual machine for us to try out and install our own OSes on it?

    Thanks

  35. Browser Appliance from USB key by www-xenu-dot-net · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Does this mean what I think it means...I can run their Browser Appliance from a USB Key for free? That would be awesome....!!!

    1. Re:Browser Appliance from USB key by birder · · Score: 1

      No. It's actually just a stripped down version of Workstation so it requires installation on the OS, creates some virtual devices such as NICs. Think of it as Workstation 5 without the ability to create a new machine.

    2. Re:Browser Appliance from USB key by jbarr · · Score: 1

      You are correct that the VMWare Player must first be installed on the host PC, but the Browser Appliance Virtual Machine then could definitely be run from USB key.

      --
      My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
    3. Re:Browser Appliance from USB key by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can run their Browser Appliance from USB stick - if your USB stick can hold 1.3 GB :-)

      It ship with tons of free space in the diskimage (will grow to 8-11 GB) if you pile stuff in there.

  36. A posting from VMWorld by dosguru · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Player has a lot of positive buzz right now here, as soon as we all get back home they'll be thousands of player installs all over North America. This is the product I've been hoping for to help demo products for external customers, and allow internal clients to use VMs without having to pay extra money or allow them to change things.

    Xen who? It's not even on the radar here. Nothing against Xen, but it is years behind WS5 or ESX3.

    Microsoft has been here giving away Virtual Server 2005 with a free R2 update. I have 4 copies of it and I have no idea what to do with any of them. MS was presenting today how they plan to integrate Virtual Server directly into Longhorn. How long with VMWare count MS as a partner instead of as their primary threat?

    ESX 3.0 looks sweet, lots of new features. AMD, IBM, HP, and Sun have also been showing off their newest and greatest hardware for running ESX farms.

    1. Re:A posting from VMWorld by Talinom · · Score: 1

      Microsoft has been here giving away Virtual Server 2005 with a free R2 update. I have 4 copies of it and I have no idea what to do with any of them. MS was presenting today how they plan to integrate Virtual Server directly into Longhorn.

      Convienent as Microsoft is adopting virtual licenses.

      --
      "Giving money and power to governments is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." - P.J. O'Rourke
    2. Re:A posting from VMWorld by swb · · Score: 1

      Of course it was only a matter of time before MS did its usual stunt and began eroding a better product by "integrating" or giving away a lesser product, don't we eventually want virtualization built into Windows much as it is in grown up computer systems?

      I guess what I'm hoping for is a more dynamic way to create virtual machines -- on a per application basis or something, where I don't have to create a wholly unique OS environment for one-off systems and some of the clunky, albeit flexible, stuff you have to do to handle networking, not to mention the memory gobbling.

      Workstation 5 makes some of this easier with linked clones, but from what I've used of this feature there's no way I've found (disclaimer: I haven't tried that hard) to unlink a clone to make it standalone, and the memory hogging is kind of awful; it'd be nice to have some kind of unified memory space that would allow high memory allocations on simultaneous VMs without the attendant need for gigs of physical RAM. I was unimpressed with ESXs limited ability to do this.

      Regardless, VMWare is a highly valuable tool. I wish I could get our salesdrones to push it harder when selling applications like BES or Good or even Exchange that are picky about installed application environments.

    3. Re:A posting from VMWorld by Shanep · · Score: 1

      MS was presenting today how they plan to integrate Virtual Server directly into Longhorn. How long with VMWare count MS as a partner instead of as their primary threat?

      I was about to say, "When will Microsoft learn?". But of course they have learned. They have learned that acting in a predatory monopolistic manner has practically all benefit and little cost. Even if you do loose major legal cases.

      --
      War crimes, torture, lies, illegal spying... Would someone give Bush a blowjob, already, so he can be impeached?
    4. Re:A posting from VMWorld by sgtrock · · Score: 1

      [blockquote]Xen who? It's not even on the radar here. Nothing against Xen, but it is years behind WS5 or ESX3.[/blockquote]

      It's also aimed at a different definition of the problem, so their solution doesn't really look like those alternatives. It's really the only player in their particular space.

    5. Re:A posting from VMWorld by UnixMan · · Score: 1

      ESX3? Where? As far as I know, it is ESX 2.5.2 the one out. Can you provide URI for 3? Thanks!

    6. Re:A posting from VMWorld by UnixMan · · Score: 1

      Just saw it! It is brand new! Cool!

  37. Create Marketing Buzz by phorest · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Funny,

    I was at a Microsoft event last month where the presenter was really talking up Microsoft® Virtual PC 2004 as being the cats meow. He actually spent 10 minutes out of the 3hr+ technet program to hawk it.

    So..... I went to look it up after seeing the story posted (No, I didn't RTFA) but they had links to download a free 45 day trial and the listed price was ($129.00 MSRP) for the software title. So then I went to VMWare Inc's site to compare products and darn it if MS is undercutting their price by $60.00 ($189.00 MSRP)for their VMware Workstation 5.

    Call me cynical but it smells like a little competitive marketing!

    --
    God: When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all.
    1. Re:Create Marketing Buzz by ZedmanAuk · · Score: 1

      Except that Virtual PC 2004 only runs on Windows (and Mac if you get Virtual PC 7) and only supports Microsoft guest OSs (plus OS/2). Not terribly useful for Linux and Unix types.

      --
      -ZA
    2. Re:Create Marketing Buzz by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 1

      Microsoft does not support running non-Windows OS's on VirtualPC, but you can. It runs just about every flavor of Linux, DOS, and tons of other more obscure OS's.

      I've heard that MS plans to support running Linux on VPC in the future, but I don't know if that's true. I run SUSE on Virtual PC and it works just fine.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
    3. Re:Create Marketing Buzz by qa'lth · · Score: 1

      Really?
      Wow.
      My copy of QNX 6.3 installed inside Virtual PC 2004 must be illusory.

      Hmm.

    4. Re:Create Marketing Buzz by ostiguy · · Score: 1

      My experience running debian under vpc2004 was painful - the clock for the debian system would leap forwards and backward constantly. Was worthless for anything where time needed to be consistent.

      ostiguy

  38. Not entirely accurate by WindBourne · · Score: 2, Interesting

    VmWare is feeling a lot of heat from a lot of areas. If you think that Xen is causing VmWare no heat, then you are sadly mistaken. Linux/bsd on xen runs with much less performace penalty than vmware. In addition, there will be shortly, a way to run MS in it, but with a performance penalty. That means, for the occiasional user of windows, this is perfect, and quite a bit cheaper. So yes, xen is very much a competitor to VmWare

    Of course, if you are running lots of windows, then Conenctix will be shortly the prefered approach. I would be sutprised if MS does not include connectix for free with all their windows.

    So if you run Linux and Xen is bundled automatically, you would pay for VmWare, why? Likewise, if you run Windows, and Connectix is bundled for free, you would use Vmware why?

    Sad to say, I am guessing that VmWare is likely to be netscaped.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    1. Re:Not entirely accurate by DaHat · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I'll try to answer your generic question of:

      If you run X and it comes with Y, why would you use/buy Z?

      In one fell swoop...

      Because Z is leaps and bounds better than Y!

      Why don't Windows users buy Photoshop or Paintshop Pro when MS Paint came for free?!?! Why do Windows users download FireFox when they already have IE? Why buy or use MS Word when you have notepad AND wordpad for free?!?!?!

    2. Re:Not entirely accurate by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      yeah, but it is only of interest if you are running a mixed env. esp. with windows. If you are using OSS (linux,BSD) , then xen is superior and will only get better. I am also willing to bet that netware will shortly support xen to make it easy to migrate.

      I can not really say how connectix compares against vmWare, but if MS can not outcode VmWare, then I suspect that MS will certainly figure out a way to harm VmWare and put their stuff ahead.

      If you are comparing notepad/wordpad to Office, then yes, you would probably buy Office. But comparing OO/SO (or even Corel/Lotus office) to MS Office is a better comparisions (assuming that no monopoly is involved).

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    3. Re:Not entirely accurate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Connectix is the name of the company Microsoft bought Virtual PC from, not the software itself. The fact that you don't even know the name of the software you're comparing Xen and VMWare to speaks volumes about your understanding of the issue.

    4. Re:Not entirely accurate by WindBourne · · Score: 1
      The fact that you don't even know the name of the software you're comparing Xen and VMWare to speaks volumes about your understanding of the issue

      In no way have I said that I do Windows. In fact, through out my later post, I flat out say that (prior to your post). So, IFWM, if we ignore your ad-homium, the real issue is what chance does VmWare have in this market; pretty much none. MS will do what they always do; If they can not outcode, offer it for free. If that does not work, then simply prevent the other from playing. Yeah, they will pay a fine later, but so what. They paid out 1 billion to Dr.Dos AFTER making some odd 100 billion PROFIT (and increasing). IOW, less than 1% cost to cheat. The best dollars that MS has ever spent is in all their legal suits due to their cheating. They will do it with this product.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    5. Re:Not entirely accurate by Decker-Mage · · Score: 1
      Actually, VMWare pretty much owns their market segment and will for the forseeable future at least until Vista comes along. Currently MS has Virtual PC and Virtual Server 2005 (soon to be in Release 2). I've used both and have tested the later extensively, both beta and release, as well as VMWare Workstation since the 2.0 version. To put it mildly, VMWare is the consistent hands-down performance and feature winner and MS hasn't even come close and still won't for quite a while. That doesn't even take into account GSX or ESX. Vista, in the versions that will include virtualization, may allow for better performance but again, VMWare will also be sitting there coding for the hypervisor as well and they consistently code better. Personally, I call it no contest and worth the money if you are at all serious about virtualization and I be serious given the amount of beta work that I do here.

      For the casual/home/work-at-home user, VPC or the upcoming virtualization in Vista will be a more financially sound decision, but that's already the case now as VPC is much cheaper than VMWare WS. It just isn't nearly as capable but that category of user won't be using those capabilities anyway. Totally different market segments which you are, mistakenly, merging into on overarching market segment. BTW, I should point out that even MS uses VMWare for some of its labs and partner demo CD's. Once I get my copy of the player the very first thing I'm going to fire up is the ISA lab just to see if it works.

      --
      "[I]t is a wise man who admits the limits of his knowledge or skill, and that pretending either causes harm." --Terry Go
  39. Re:Excellent for "black sheep" corporate Linux use by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Unfortunately that personal copy will set you back about $300.

  40. cool by xbmodder · · Score: 1

    VMware used to be corporate murder. They released "betas" that were free. Now they are going 100% free. They can crush their competition. They are going to come out with some kind of platform for selling programs with built in "machines". I could run apache native on windows! Good idea guys! 64-bit rosetta stone?

  41. And the killer hardware to go with it by Weaselmancer · · Score: 1

    Is a 40GB usb2 drive. I own one and haven't had a use for it in a long while.

    Until now.

    --
    Weaselmancer
    rediculous.
  42. Re:Can someone please upload a blank virtual machi by NuclearDog · · Score: 1

    http://ikaruga.co.uk/~nd/vm.zip

    256MB RAM, 8GB IDE Hard-Disk, CD-ROM Set to Auto-Detect, Bridged Ethernet, Audio Enabled, Shared Folders Disabled, Snapshots Disabled, Guest Isolation Enabled

    Note: I will be taking this down within a short amount of time simply to avoid sucking up too much of my bandwidth. Please mirror this file.

    Note #2: I didn't actually test this in VMware Player. It should work and should boot off of your virtual hard-disk (which should fail, as it's blank) and then fall back to booting off of a CD in your CD-ROM drive (assuming the Player works as I think it would, which it probably doesn't).

    ND

    --
    This statement is forty-five characters long.
  43. Huh? by Gadren · · Score: 3, Funny

    People BUY VMWare? O_o

  44. Small to Mid IT Folks - Is this a holy grail? by SpeedStreet · · Score: 1

    This is my first post after years of trolling. You all rock.

    As the IT manager of a mid-size snowboarding company, I cannot seem to keep people from going to random, retarded websites where they pick up all sorts of whatnot. One of my problem imps actually now has a copy of VMWare on his desktop setup with a copy of Linux just so he can use his browser without messing up his computer.

    Which brings me to this incredible little offer by VMWare and a question for all of you:

    Could this, a virtual machine running purely a browser segmented and seperated from the rest of the OS, something that employees could run with (a little bit) less fear of infected their computer with the average random malware and spyware that exists on today's internet? Could this finally be the answer to Joe and Suzy Q Employee and my begging and pleading for them to click the little orange and blue icon, you no longer need to click the big E to get to the Internet?

    Is this something we as small and medium sized IT folk should start to consider implementing on a wider scale?

    Or am I just a wishful thinker?

    1. Re:Small to Mid IT Folks - Is this a holy grail? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, actually you're just a fucking moron. Thanks for making consulting so lucrative.

    2. Re:Small to Mid IT Folks - Is this a holy grail? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yup, this will save you plenty o trouble. Users are the devil.

    3. Re:Small to Mid IT Folks - Is this a holy grail? by Decker-Mage · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Actually I've been using VMWare Workstation version 2.0x for this purpose for years. I like to keep an eye on the dark-side so when I cruise their boards I have always used a VM to do it from. Anytime they glitch/hack/crack the VM, I would just restore from the snapshot. I'd also work this way anytime I was operating unprotected out their due to a 0-day security hole (Windows or *nix) so I could get my patches, tuck them into my shared folder, get safe again. Heck, I was running DC's on VMWare long before MS decided it was a bright idea. Crack my DC? Fine, restore from snapshot and off I go, after I patch of course

      So, for a security standpoint, yes you can do this and I'd highly recommend it. Heck, security would be what I consider a natural market for this product as testers need something a bit more robust. VMWare must think the same given the Browser Alternative image that exists. Nice to see someone else thinking security first.

      BTW, the way I'd approach it is to place a known good copy of whatever image you are going to use in a safe place, or burn it to CD, just remember to change permissions when you copy it off the CD to remove the write-protect (depending on how you copy it). Whenever the image gets totally wacked, which it will, restore from the copy. You'll lose any settings/bookmarks/cookies/etc., but this may be considered a good thing. Also do remember that there is the potential, since the VM will be sharing the connection in some way with the machine to have a worm crawl out of the VM and climb into the host OS. Small, but it is there. The way I solve this problem is to block all the ports between the VM and the Host on the host side, using a software firewall just on that adapter if you are running Windows in a VM on Windows. Windows on *nix, don't worry about it as hybrids haven't been successful (yet). Not perfect but if you don't have a separate machine to set up just for browsing that can be restored from image daily/hourly/whenever, this is about the next best thing.

      --
      "[I]t is a wise man who admits the limits of his knowledge or skill, and that pretending either causes harm." --Terry Go
    4. Re:Small to Mid IT Folks - Is this a holy grail? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      use a fucking mirror and see the real moron

  45. Re:Excellent for "black sheep" corporate Linux use by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why would you need to run Linux at work if it's against corporate policy? More like "I want to play with Linux at work but it's against corporate policy to install it".

  46. Download a VM Here by stevemm81 · · Score: 1

    It looks like you can download an evaluation version of VMWare workstation that "dies" in one month. I'm not sure if you can create a VM with that, then play it with player, or if they're DRMed, but it's at VMWare's site.

    You could also download a virtual machine here it looks like. I'm sure if you google you can find others.

    1. Re:Download a VM Here by ChipX86 · · Score: 1

      Nope, no DRM. The trial is uncrippled. It just expires after a while, that's all, but the VM does not. You're free to use the trial to create a VM for use in the Player.

  47. Re:Can someone please upload a blank virtual machi by marciot · · Score: 1

    I haven't tried this yet, but I bet it will revert to the original state every time you shut it down, otherwise they would essentially be giving the product away for free.

    So if you started with a blank machine, you would loose all your work unless you kept it running 24/7.

    But this is just speculation. I have no idea how they chose to limit this, but even so, I think it is great of VMWare to release this. I teach operating system courses and I'm going to definitely try it out (the only reason I haven't is that it supposedly does not install on a machine that already has VMWare Workstation on it, so I need to find another box for testing).

    -- Marcio

  48. Re:Excellent for "black sheep" corporate Linux use by Glonoinha · · Score: 1

    $200. They dropped the price a few months ago.

    --
    Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
  49. Show us! by A+nonymous+Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    just load another secretary image

    Can we see some samples?

    1. Re:Show us! by Thing+1 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Here ya go.

      --
      I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
  50. Re:Can someone please upload a blank virtual machi by pdbogen · · Score: 1

    Any easy out here, for Linux based systems, at least, would be diskless boot with the root partition hosted off the vmware's host computer.

    Okay, maybe not easy, but hey, this is slashdot.

  51. OpenBSD VM? by iamsure · · Score: 1

    Anyone know of a (trustable) source for a solid OpenBSD vmware image?

    1. Re:OpenBSD VM? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yourself??\

    2. Re:OpenBSD VM? by LurkerXXX · · Score: 1
      I've got one, but I'll warn you that I'm not trustworthy. ;)

      Unfortunately, OpenBSD isn't a supported client. They don't make VMWare tools that install on OpenBSD, so the video performance, etc, isn't as good as it could be. The FreeBSD VMWare tools don't work under OpenBSD, at least as far as I've found.

    3. Re:OpenBSD VM? by iamsure · · Score: 1

      I need it more for server apps, not Xwindow stuff, so video performance is totally not an issue.

  52. Re:Excellent for "black sheep" corporate Linux use by hetz · · Score: 1

    Mind checking the price Again? it's $189 these days - for Windows or Linux.

    --
    nah, no sig... move on..
  53. Imagine a beowulf cluster! by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 1

    I know this going to sound like an advert, and maybe it is, but I'm not getting compensated for it.

    VMWare lets you run multiple virtual machines on one computer. That's cool and all, but there is another product out there that does the inverse - it lets you join together multiple independent machines (like those in a beowulf cluster) and turn them into one big virtual machine with one system image. So, if you have 16 seperate PCs, you can boot and run linux and it will look like one big 16-cpu server.

    This "reverse" virtual machine is from Virtual Iron and, sadly, it is not free. But it is damn cool, especially when you look at the extra stuff you can do like dynamically add and delete entire PCs. Theoretically you could acheive 100% uptime by switching out individual PCs when they start to fail.

    The idea has a lot of promise, OpenMosix kinda-sorta does something like that, but not at all as slick. I'm hoping someone decides to take Xen in a similar direction so we can all build beowulf clusters in the basement and turn them into giant single systems.

    --
    When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    1. Re:Imagine a beowulf cluster! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or perhaps www.virtualiron.com, without the tranpsosition?

    2. Re:Imagine a beowulf cluster! by Slashcrap · · Score: 1

      it lets you join together multiple independent machines (like those in a beowulf cluster) and turn them into one big virtual machine with one system image. So, if you have 16 seperate PCs, you can boot and run linux and it will look like one big 16-cpu server.

      That would be just like having a 16 processor server. Except that instead of the CPUs being linked together by a fast internal bus (like HyperTransport) they would be linked together with switched Ethernet.

      Fantastic! I've always dreamed of building a 16 CPU server that can almost match the performance of a single CPU server and now is my chance!

      This might be great for HA and consolidation, but you're not going to get the performance of a 16 CPU server unless they have developed an interconnect with latency and bandwidth equivalent to an FSB. If they have, I promise you it will cost more than a 16 CPU server to implement.

    3. Re:Imagine a beowulf cluster! by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 1

      This might be great for HA and consolidation, but you're not going to get the performance of a 16 CPU server unless they have developed an interconnect with latency and bandwidth equivalent to an FSB.

      They currently use 4x infiniband. It has about 10x the latency of a modern CC-NUMA internal interconnect. But your prediction of poor performance is pretty much worst case. Any application that knows how to take advantage of memory locality (just about any parallel app built with OpenMP) should see very good scalability on such a system.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
  54. Re:Use of Virtual Machines for 16-bit OSes by not-my-real-name · · Score: 2, Funny

    Wow! I am simply in awe.

    Somebody went through a lot of effort to type that in. I'll have to save it in case I need to impress some non-technical people.

    --
    un-ALTERED reproduction and dissimination of this IMPORTANT information is ENCOURAGED
  55. Re:First virtual post by smittyoneeach · · Score: 1

    I'm planning on installing VMWare because I have a few applications that require a Redmond OS, and, if there is a way to avoid booting it, then I say, right on!

    --
    Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
  56. Re:Excellent for "black sheep" corporate Linux use by Crimson+Midget · · Score: 1

    Some of us work in an environment where we manage Linux servers, but due to policy, must run Windows desktops.

  57. More Free Software Ports by miyako · · Score: 1

    I think this will be good for free (speech or beer) applications. Especially applications with smaller development communities often have times because people don't have the hardware to test on a lot of differet OSes. I've worked on a few OSS apps where I've been the only one to work on porting applications to anything other than one of the couple of Linux distros that the main developers use, just because out of all the developers I was the only one with a valid windows license and a copy of VMWare- due mainly to the fact that I get cheap software from school. It would be nice to simply have another developer download this player and then I can create an image of "X version Y" and send them the image and then have them do porting work.

    --
    Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
  58. Re:Use of Virtual Machines for 16-bit OSes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    random term paper generator

  59. Anyone tried the PXE VM images? by PXE+Geek · · Score: 1

    Both Argon and Emboot have PXE boot VMware virtual machine images - anyone tried them? Or is that a non-starter for the VMWare player?

  60. vmplayer does not have snapshot or revert by totro2 · · Score: 1

    FYI:

    One of VMware's killer features, making and reverting from snapshots, is not available in the player. But I'm still impressed with it none the less.

    VMware, you rock! Thank you!

    Now it makes sense for all linux distros to have VM images of their new releases available by torrent for demo, which would be much easier than making a live CD (as Ubuntu does).

  61. Re:Excellent for "black sheep" corporate Linux use by Michael+Meissner · · Score: 1

    I dunno, I do it the other way. I run Linux normally, and use VMWare to run Microsoft Windows in order to run Outlook, Word, etc. which unfortunately the corporate environment requires. The only thing I really can't do that I need Windows for is sync my PDA to Outlook, so I usually boot the laptop into Windows once a day. I would prefer to use the Linux tools for mail, but there are too many corporate apps that need real windows, and I don't have time to track down all of the solutions.

    Any yes, I have separate Windows/Office licenses for both running native and under VMware. I did try to run with one disk partition sharing the two, but the problem is the code in Windows XP that checks if the system has changed hardware, and does a call home to Redmond to see if its legit.

  62. is it real or just beta by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I downloaded this and the image for the Browser-Appliance and read a EULA that refers to this as beta software. Specifially the subtitle on the EULA has "VMware Player EULA_rev20050927" It goes on to say the software is limited use and that users have the obligation to provide feedback with all the rights to reuse and republish said feedback. I was excited to read the initial story on this but if it's beta and with these limitations I'm afraid my feedback will be referring to competing and freely available alternatives such as the ones mentioned in this thread.

  63. Linux really is a cancer! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    The smart thing to do now would be to make Xen and Qemu compatible with the VMware Reader images then start putting up VMware images of all the different Linux distributions on the torrent and ftp sites. The cancer will start spreading to even more machines. No need to dual-boot or reboot to a LiveCD. Just double-click and leave Linux running all of the time!

  64. "is" != "will soon" by TimMann · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's always tough for the present to compete with the glorious future.

    1. Re:"is" != "will soon" by ln+-sf+head+ass · · Score: 1
      LOL. Nice to see a developer posting here. VMWare's timing on this is just about normal for me--our office just bought several licenses to address a specific required PC configuration without having to have users dual boot or run separate machines. Of course now it will be quite affordable to expand it beyond the three--thanks!

      One annoyance I've had about VMware, though, is having to patch the binary in order to use the Ethernet OUI of my choice (there are situations in which having a telltale VMware OUI is quite undesirable--think honeypots). Why does VMware attempt to tie down its paying customers that way? That should be a user-configurable option.

      Again, thanks for a great product, and for the release of this tool--it will no doubt gain tremendous mindshare.

  65. Should be a X driver for it by TimMann · · Score: 1

    VMware contributed a driver for our virtual video card to X, and it's part of the XFree86/Xorg tree, so you should be able to use that and get decent video performance on BSD. I haven't tried it myself though -- I'm not a BSD guy.

  66. "Profiled" application-only VMs by swb · · Score: 1

    I'm not entirely sure how practical this is to do, but it would be kind of nice if there was a way to "profile" or "smart link" an application-specific VM image such that the profiled version didn't have all the OS junk that wasn't necessary to run whatever the intended application was. Sort of like a statically linked binary, I guess.

    The upside to the player is that you don't need a fullblown VMware install to use it, the downside is that in many cases you need a whole OS image to run a single app. I know this doesn't apply for some OSS applications, but even with them it can be decidedly non-trivial to whittle down to some minimal OS install.

  67. Virtual PC files don't work at all by assassinator42 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Virtual PC files don't even work on Windows. Well, Virtual PC 2004 files on Windows XP home to be specific. It gets half way through importing the virtual machine, then says it could not be opened. I tried with a dynamic hard drive, no hard drive, and a fixed size hard drive. Same thing every time. I'm not sure why it says it can open vmc files, because apparently it can not.

    1. Re:Virtual PC files don't work at all by Curunir_wolf · · Score: 1
      I'm not sure why it says it can open vmc files, because apparently it can not.

      Can't open mine either. It posts an error in the event log about "drive letter not located" or some such. Not helpful at all...

      --
      "Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
      --- Jerry Garcia
    2. Re:Virtual PC files don't work at all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I get the same error:

      Vmount2.Vmount2Device: no drive letter currently assigned

      when trying to open a VirtualPC2004 machine with 98SE installed on it, but it opens one with XP Pro (the same as the host pc) without any problem.

    3. Re:Virtual PC files don't work at all by Curunir_wolf · · Score: 1
      but it opens one with XP Pro (the same as the host pc) without any problem.

      It won't open my XP Pro images... I tried all kinds of configuration changes to the vmc, but always get the same error!

      Too bad there are no real clues about how to get it to work - but at least now I know it *can*.

      --
      "Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
      --- Jerry Garcia
    4. Re:Virtual PC files don't work at all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      On my XP Pro it starts XP and Windows Server 2003 images fine, but other machines (OS/2 Aurora, NetBSD, PC DOS) fail with "The virtual machine or image ... couldn't be opened"

  68. QEMU = 0.7.1 makes VMXs by gottabeme · · Score: 1

    So just install QEMU >= 0.7.1, and use qemu-img to make the image. "man qemu-img" for details.

    --
    "Those who consume the bulk of goods are those who make them. We must never forget this secret of our prosperity."
  69. Fc4 by digitalhermit · · Score: 1

    Works great on FC4 host. So far I've tested a Win2K image, Fedora Core 4 guest, Solaris 9. Images were created on VMWare Workstation for Windows from the the full version from my work. It also seems a heckuva lot faster than the other version I'm running.

  70. _Very_ good move by VMWare by imemyself · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've used VMWare(Workstation and GSX) a lot for the last couple of years. I use VMware Workstation daily on my desktop at home. I have maybe 30 or so VM's(versions of Linux, Windows, Solaris, FreeBSD, Netware, and OS X). I run Netware and Windows Sever in GSX on RHEL4. I couldn't live without VMware. Novell has recently started distributing some of their eval stuff via VMware images, I think Oracle has as well. I'm assuming that VMware is doing this to encourage other companies to start doing similar things. It's really a pretty neat idea, testing/learning about different OS's and software through VMware. I have also used Virtual PC, and I must say that VMware is much, much better that Virtual PC. The only think I use VPC for is to occasionally screw around in OS/2, and I'm probably going to try and install that in VMware sooner or later. I'll admit I haven't used Xen, but for me the best thing about VMware is that I can run different OS's. I don't think running Linux-on-Linux is nearly as amazing or revolutionary as running Netware-on-Linux, or Solaris-on-Windows, etc. I think that VMware Workstation 5.5(currently in beta I think, I've not tried it though), will supposely run x86_64 guests, on x86_64 hosts. VMware seems to be really moving forward a lot, each new release seems to add something that I will actually use unlike a lot of other software. I only wish they would offer updates to GSX a litte often. Right now GSX won't work with VMware Workstation 5 VM's(which support multiple snapshots). VMware Workstation 5 will run 4.5 style VM's, but you cannot use snapshots. Other than that, I can't say there's anything I don't like about VMware. And no, I don't work for them, nor am I in any way associated with them. Just a very, very, happy customer.

    --
    Every time you post an article on Slashdot, I kill a server. Think of the servers!
  71. It works! by gottabeme · · Score: 1

    I'm pleased to report that it works quite well! I converted a QEMU qcow image to vmdk with "qemu-img convert debian-unstable.img -O vmdk debian-unstable.vmdk", then I took the VMX file from the Browser-Application.zip (you could also use one from Google), edited the VMX to point to the vmdk as an IDE device, opened the VMX with vmplayer, and it's booting just fine. Thanks, VMware! :)

    --
    "Those who consume the bulk of goods are those who make them. We must never forget this secret of our prosperity."
    1. Re:It works! by MilenCent · · Score: 1

      I don't suppose you'd upload a blank QEMU VMware image somewhere so those of us forced to run Windows could play around with this?

      Pretty please?

      (Hopefully, ZIP'd it wouldn't be very large.)

  72. Blank VMDK by gottabeme · · Score: 1

    http://tinyurl.com/cgle2

    Heh, you're right, it's quite tiny: 320 KB raw, 1 KB zipped.

    Actually, you can install QEMU on Windows and make your own blank images. But this is so tiny, might as well upload it. :)

    I'm *assuming* that VMware can grow the image as needed; if not, 320 KB would probably be a bit cramped for an entire disk.

    Good luck.

    --
    "Those who consume the bulk of goods are those who make them. We must never forget this secret of our prosperity."
    1. Re:Blank VMDK by MilenCent · · Score: 1

      Thank you very much! I'll play around with it a bit. Rest assured you just helped a college student ensure he'll be absolutely useless when he has to go in tomorrow morning, heh.

  73. Re:Can someone please upload a blank virtual machi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Do it yourself :)

    necessary tools
    1) Vmware viewer
    2)Daemontools or similar software for loading virtual CDs
    3)ISO of freedos (installable version)
    http://www.freedos.org/freedos/files/

    4)ISO of freedoslite
    http://www.freedos.org/freedos/files/fdoslite.html

    3)the Browser appliance disk image available from VMware

    preliminary steps
    The configureation file for the browser appliance disk image sets the amount of ram needed at 256 MB.Not only is this overkill, it prevents the image from running on systems that really are adequete for the task.

    To do this open up the browser appliance configureation file with notepad, and change memsize = "256" to a smaller value.I set it as 64MB

    Now we need to get rid of the stripped down ubuntu install in the disc image.To do this we're using a CD version of freedos, either as an image or a drive. However, this is a little trickier than it would seem. WMware viewer will consider the LAST drive as the CD drive it can read.Thus it would be a good idea to use a virtual drive with its letter set to Z as the source drive for freedos.

    Now, once you have that freedos disc loaded, load up the VMware image you are using.At the initial VMware screen press escape to go to the boot menu, and select "CD-ROM DRIVE"

    This should bring you to the freedos installer
    select the first option
    "prepare the hard disk for installation of freedos...by running fdisk...."
    this should bring you to FDISK, and a screen asking you if you want to enable large disk support. press Y and enter.

    This brings you to the main Fdisk screen. From here select the third option to delete a partition, and the forth option on the next screen to delete non dos partition. There is only one non dos partition so press 1 and enter.Press escape and go back to the main screen
    select the first option, to create a new parition, and the first option again, to make a new FAT partition, agree to make it the maximum possible size (Y then enter), and when you're back to the main screen, exit Fdisk.

    This should restart the system. Press escape and choose to boot from CD again.At this point, GRUB (the linux bootloader) is messed so you have little option anyway.

    at the Freedos installer, select the first option again, and this time format the disk.
    choose to install freedos with freedos setup

    choose to configure freedos setup at the next screen(first option)
    and choose to start install on the screen after that(first option)

    this brings you to a LONG file which you can skip by pressing esc after which you come to the graphical installer. Install.

    Now mount freedoslite into your virtual CD drive. choose freeFDISK and create MBR
    reboot.

    You should now have a Disk image of Freedos,on a FAT 32 filesystem over which you can install your OS of choice.

    Faileas Grey

  74. Sure by gottabeme · · Score: 1

    http://tinyurl.com/cgle2

    Made it with QEMU, actually; so you can do it yourself too. :)

    --
    "Those who consume the bulk of goods are those who make them. We must never forget this secret of our prosperity."
  75. freeze during installation by npgmr · · Score: 1

    I downloaded a copy for Windows, installed in XP Home, hang my computer during installation, then refuse to reinstall over existing copy, telling me to remove it via Add/Remove program -- which doesn't exists because the previous installation failed and I had to press the reboot button.

    So I manually edit the registry, hunt down all the left over files in my hard drive, and gave it another try. Without fail, it hang my pc again.

    What a product.

    1. Re:freeze during installation by Tonttoro · · Score: 1

      I had the effect too. I am quite sure it was because of Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta, or (not as likely) because of Norton Internet Security 2004. After two failed installations (I removed VMWare, Inc. registry tree from HKLM_something/Software/VMWare, Inc.) I finally disabled MS AntiSpyware and Norton. One reboot later I got VMWare working, however I coulnd't get MS AntiSpyware to work on my machine.

      Maybe I will have to Remove MS AntiSpyware, remove some its's leftover registry keys and it's leftover configuration files, and reinstall to get it work right. That will be the project for later days...

      Anyways, when you install VMWare or similar software that makes/modifies Network Adapters, you can be sure that all AntiSpyware, AntiVirus and Internet Security programs try to make it as hard as they can.

      --
      when everyone gives everything, then everyone everything will get
  76. How is this different from ACE? (other than $) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    VMWare ACE also lets you run VM's that are inviolable to the host machine. What makes Player different, apart from the cost? Can a Player VM save it's state between sessions?

    I'd love to read the article, but for some peculiar reason, the VMWare site seems to be a bit unresponsive this morning...

  77. Re:Can someone please upload a blank virtual machi by AVee · · Score: 1

    the only reason I haven't is that it supposedly does not install on a machine that already has VMWare Workstation on it, so I need to find another box for testing

    Well, erm...
    Isn't the whole deal of VMware about not needing another box for testing? Run the player in a virtual machine :)

  78. It works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just tested it with a dos bootdisk, works fine.

  79. slachdotten m0-f0! by EddyPearson · · Score: 1

    Looks like VMWare's been slashdotted ;)

    --
    You feel sleepy. Close your eyes. The opinions stated above are yours. You cannot imagine why you ever felt otherwise.
  80. what is the ubuntu root password by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    what is the root password for the ubuntu install with the browser utility and can the distro be made to be full blown?

    how to read the sudoers file or get around to read it?

    1. Re:what is the ubuntu root password by moro_666 · · Score: 2, Informative

      at first you are offtopic my friend
      but still i wont leave you in the struggle

      #shell$ sudo /bin/bash
      Password: /// not the root password here, YOUR PASSWORD

      #root@yourhost$ passwd
      Enter new UNIX password: xxx
      Retype new UNIX password: xxx

      there you go ....

      smack baby smack ...

      ### smth for the the topic too

      vmware is being slashdotted, and being slashdotted hard ...

      can anyone provide cached links for some web cached page and can somebody please put out a gentoo image for vmware please ?

      thnx a lot in advance

      --

      I'd tell you the chances of this story being a dupe, but you wouldn't like it.
    2. Re:what is the ubuntu root password by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      used user = vmware, then the password = vmware

      none the less u r thanked in advance once again for u sage farsightedness...

      will take these examples and advance further into the ubuntu realm

      ihave a pretty nice install now.

      i now have knotes and kde's desktop pager and multiple desktops on my dual desk head xp environment to finally be able to keep my "life together via the computer".

      sweet is the word.

  81. right on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    perfect!

  82. Direct Download Links by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In case of slashdotting:

    --- Windows ---
    http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmplayer/VMwa re-player-1.0.0-16981.exe
    md5sum: 69474caa0802be99379973605a93b952

    --- Linux ---
    http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmplayer/VMwa re-player-1.0.0-16981.rpm
    md5sum: 2027d6fa8956b73b9387e9313417ab49

    http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmplayer/VMwa re-player-1.0.0-16981.tar.gz
    md5sum: cf0f07a05081272c073e2ffd4972b05f

  83. This is to compete with microsoft by petree · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure how long they've been doing this, but microsoft now leverages the fact they own virtual pc to use it for training and marketing materials. They may not let end-users do it, but they bundle virtual pc (some read only persuasion) + images to show off different capabilities of their products. My company is an MSDN developer and we got a book of these type of CDs with VPC+Images on them.

    My guess is this VMWare move is to allow them and other companies to do similar things. Wouldn't it be nice if training materials for MSCE (ugh) or better yet, Linux certifications had VMWare examples of systems running examples? Hell, you could even have users run multiple images to simulate a whole server environment.

  84. Re:Excellent for "black sheep" corporate Linux use by skiman1979 · · Score: 1

    If corporate policy won't let you install Linux, why would it let you install Linux under a virtual machine? In the end, you're still running a Linux system on the corporate network. This system may have it's own IP address or be NAT'd behind your host OS, but it's still there.

    --
    Having a smoking section in a public restaurant is like having a peeing section in a public swimming pool.
  85. Re:this does what? by moro_666 · · Score: 1

    i still prefer qemu to all of this ... with the kernel module it's fast enough to use for normal purposes.

    qemu is free and you dont need heuristic images, you just create a hdd dump (or just run a livecd for a known linux distro ... and thats it ....

    the vmware player's installer is a bit bloated. and it should have an option to work without the kernel module (ofcourse being slow but still ... )

    anyway, i guess vmware felt that someone is breathing into their neck, so they had to lower the average price for their products... smart move ... let's see if they one day give us smth as simple and as afree as qemu is :D

    --

    I'd tell you the chances of this story being a dupe, but you wouldn't like it.
  86. Go Vmware! by PacketScan · · Score: 1

    This is why i am still a customer. They have never done wrong by me! Good going can't wait to use the new toys.

  87. Xen *is* better than VMWare (in FOSS environment) by Phatmanotoo · · Score: 1

    Xen is already better (faster) than VMWare, provided we're talking Linux hosting Linux.

    Xen can do things that VMWare can't, because it relies on modifications in the source of both host and guest OS. This is its greatest advantage. Remember that Xen has been shown to run a modified version of Windows XP (of course I somehow doubt MS will ever make this "Xen Guest Edition" available).

    So, in the Free world, Xen wins.

  88. Any Apple images around? by Mantorp · · Score: 1

    Didn't someone stick Jaguwire in one of these a few months back?

  89. Xen will be real competition soon by Phatmanotoo · · Score: 1
    I doubt most of the corporate types at VMware know that Xen even exists - let alone sees it as any sort of "competition".

    Well, maybe not your average Windows shop, but the ones that run Unix or Linux (like us) are paying close attention to Xen.

    With Intel and AMD including new "virtualization hooks" into their procs, soon VMWare will lose much (if not all) of its technological advantages over Xen and other virtualizators on i386 platforms. Google up on "Vanderpool" and "Pacifica" (+Intel+AMD).

  90. Re:Excellent for "black sheep" corporate Linux use by Minwee · · Score: 1

    That's when you budget for an extra "management server" which will be installed in a highly servicable location, like right beside that Windows desktop.

  91. Re:Can someone please upload a blank virtual machi by marciot · · Score: 1

    > Run the player in a virtual machine :)

    I hadn't thought of this, but sadly when I try I get "Sorry, this product cannot be installed in a virtual machine" :(

    -- Marcio

  92. Re^2: Wish they'd finally support OS/2 as well... by D4C5CE · · Score: 1
    Yes, ...
    Virtual PC lets you create separate virtual machines on your Windows desktop
    ... but no "Warp engineer" would want [w|W]indows in their machine room.
    They are used to running Windows where it belongs according to its own name: in windows (i.e. as a guest OS).
    There are not many hosts to match the OS/2 experience in stability (though Linux would quite possibly qualify for most these days), and Windows XP, in spite of improvements (and an impressive unofficial list of supported guests), is not necessarily one of them.
  93. I much prefer VMWare by Paul+Crowley · · Score: 1

    I have used both "in anger" (for Windows software development, it's handy to install the software on a virtual machine running whatever OS you want to test, then revert to the pre-installed state) and I much, much prefer VMWare. I'm very glad we persuaded our various partners to switch to it.

  94. Re:Excellent for "black sheep" corporate Linux use by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Need to run Linux at work but corporate policy won't let you? (or plan to install Linux anyway, but need that killer-app for Windows?)...

    In the past I've used coLinux for when I have to use Windows.

    Personally, I'm more interested in running Windows under Linux.