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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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
I suppose this is only a problem if you're already bigoted against anything "Inc."
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
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).
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 ----
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.
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.
"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 wonder "just what alternate universe are these people living in?"
I really don't want to be a smart *ss, but whenever I read these sorts of comments here on
I doubt most of the corporate types at VMware know that Xen even exists - let alone sees it as any sort of "competition".
#DeleteChrome
By doing that you're still breaking the license agreement so it's really no better than pirating them.
It's always tough for the present to compete with the glorious future.
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
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