| JP Vossen on 23 Aug 2007 18:56:07 -0000 |
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Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 10:59:01 -0400 From: Michael Schultheiss <schultmc@cinlug.org> Subject: Re: [PLUG] Why isn't vmware free anymore?
I used Workstation in the past but now use Server exclusively. I use both VMware Workstation 5.5 and VMware Server 1.0.3 extensively. Workstation 6.0 just came out, but I haven't seen any compelling reason to upgrade yet (I also haven't looked into it much). I find Player too limiting and don't both using it at all, since Server is free (as in beer, subject to license caveats as previously noted) and much better. Here is my perspective. Note VMware refers to the "host" machine that VMware is running on top of (except for ESX server, which runs on top of a stripped Linux but is not covered here) and "guest" machines which are the VMs (virtual machines) running inside of VMware itself. Workstation: * Not free as in beer * Requires a GUI on the "host" machine + Does not allow a remote console (unless you VNC the host or something) * Allows unlimited "snapshot" trees (think VM diffs), which is *really* great for all kinds of software/process testing Server: * Free as in beer (*.exe, *.rpm, *.tgz formats. The *.tgz installs flawlessly on recent Debian and Ubuntu, but may require some/all of these packages: linux-image-686 linux-headers-686 build-essential xinetd autoconf2.13 automake1.9 automake + inetd is required for the console listener daemon + build-essential (and headers, make stuff) will be required to compile certain VMware modules if you upgrade your kernel to something newer than VMware has pre-compiled modules for. They are really good about tracking Ubuntu, slightly less so about Debian, but sooner or later this *will* happen to you. Not a big deal if everything you need is installed.) * Does NOT require a GUI on the "host" machine!!! + I run VMware Server on very minimal Debian servers with no X + I also run Server on stock Ubuntu with X, see below + Requires a remote console (but if you have a GUI on the host machine you can connect to localhost) * Only allows a single "snapshot" :-( For my purposes, I wish that Server allowed snapshot trees or Workstation had a native remote (fat) console. Either of those would be prefect for me. But that's not how they work right now. :-/ One thing I've done with great success is install Ubuntu, with VMware *Server* on top, then run a W2K machine in that. Ubuntu boots, auto logs in, fires up VMware Console, connects to the W2K machine full-screen, which auto logs in. So after a reboot--eventually--my wife has her "W2K" machine sitting there, full screen. It does audio, plays video (probably not well, but we don't do that much), etc. But the entire thing is sitting on Ubuntu, so it's trivial to back it up, move it to another machine in care of hardware failure, etc. Hope this is useful,
JP
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JP Vossen, CISSP |:::======| jp{at}jpsdomain{dot}org
My Account, My Opinions |=========| http://www.jpsdomain.org/
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Microsoft has single-handedly nullified Moore's Law.
Innate design flaws of Windows make a personal firewall, anti-virus
and anti-malware software mandatory. The resulting software arms race
has effectively flattened Moore's Law on hardware running Windows.
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