vmware workstation

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wolfman · #1 Post by **wolfman** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 5:13 pm

Just checking in before I plunk down $180 to purchase VMWare Workstation 5 if anyone here has any comments to share? Worth the money? Has anyone tried bachs? I plan to run windows xp pro as the host and a couple linux flavors as the guests (ubuntu currently installed during 30 day evaluation). Software seems to work very well and I think that VMWare is a cheaper solution than a seperate, stand alone machine...Thanks!

Marc_G · #2 Post by **Marc_G** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 5:37 pm

I'm using VMWare Workstation 4.5 and have been happy with it. I use it to handle various Windows flavors but have not used Linux with it.

Marc

#3 Post by **jdhurst** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 5:59 pm

I have used every version of VMware from 1.0 forward to 5.0 now including all the betas in between. Version 5 is very good. I had more issues with V4 than with V3, but by the time V4.5 came out is was fine. Version 5 gives me no problems.

I keep a Windows 98SE machine, a Windows NT4 SP6a machine, a Windows 2000 Machine, RedHat Linux 7.3 and 9.0 machines, and SuSE Pro 9.0. The RedHat Linux 7.3 machine was best (good performance, easy to mount tools such as Samba, nMap, Nessus and the like), but I will soon get a current copy of SuSE and go forward with it. I could not get Samba running on SuSE 9.0, and therefore haven't mapped drives back to my XP host yet. I can map drives with the RedHat machines. I tried Gentoo, but it did not work well (too much work for nothing, IMHO) and it is not on the list of Linux machines supported by VMware.

One key value of VMware is that you can make a copy of a machine (either by copying it or using snapshots), test software and delete the results if things go wrong and start back with the backup copy and try again.

Another key value is to run machines that clients use (there are still a lot of Windows 98 machines out there) even though you use a different production machine.

Finally, I have run enough Linux machines and for long enough to know it is not anywhere near ready to be my only machine.
... JD Hurst

wolfman · #4 Post by **wolfman** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 8:38 pm

Great, thanks for the responses. That helps me a lot as I am in agreement with your last statement JD Hurst - I want access to linux but don't want to commit an entire machine to linux right now. One thing I am curious about - when you said you had more problems with version 4 than 3 but by 4.5 it was better - how does VMWare charge for upgrades/updates? Did you pay to go from 3->4 but not 4->4.5?

I have been able to get cvs up and running in ubuntu and connect to the repository from eclipse under windows, which was a test for the virtual networking. I'm happy that all worked relatively easily, thinking I'll buy a copy.

#5 Post by **jdhurst** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 9:10 pm

I paid for 1, then 2, then 3, then 4, and then 5, but none of the decimal points in between no matter how many or how few. Upgrades are cheaper than full machines, but VMware has been getting cheaper over time ... JD Hurst

benplaut · #6 Post by **benplaut** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 12:31 am

just try out the 30 day trial, see if you like it, and then buy a full version key before the trial runs out!

simple

wolfman · #7 Post by **wolfman** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 9:18 am

Yes, that is my current plan, I have the product unstalled. I'm just asking for any gotchas or insight from people that I might not see surface within the first 30 days from the tire kicking I'm doing.

slagmi · #8 Post by **slagmi** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 10:42 am

VMware is a great product and well documented, plus a great way to make use of the 2GB RAM you apparently have. If those spec's in you Sig are what you've loaded VMWare on you'll likely be able to run 3 or more virtual machines at the same.

There are certainly cheaper ways to try linux though. Knoppix or Mepis ISO downloads are free. So is Grub. A 'poor man's install' with Grub is easy and isn't hazardous to your existing Windows install.

wolfman · #9 Post by **wolfman** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 12:20 pm

Thanks, yes, I am installing vmware on my thinkpad and that is one of the reasons I installed 2 gig of ram in the machine (plus it was cheap right now and I'd rather add it when cheap than when I absolutely need it as with my luck then it will cost 3x as much).

yukit · #10 Post by **yukit** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 10:47 pm

You can lurk in VMware's forum for a while. You should be able to get a good idea of problems people are running into.

You will find that VMware people will frequently respond to questions.
Disclosure: I post once in a while when the time permits.

http://www.vmware.com/community/index.jspa

As far as the upgrades are concerned, you have to pay for the major releases (x.0) but minor releases are free (ie. the same license will continue to work)

Vaporware · #11 Post by **Vaporware** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 12:10 am

Another alternative option is Virtual PC 2004.

This seems to integrate better and run faster on Windows based platforms.
I have been messing with this quite a bit lately and host OS's both *nix and windows seem to run faster when the base Platform is running windows.

On the other hand, VMWare for Linux is the only way to fly if your base platform is a linux install.

VMWare has better virtual networking options than Virtual PC so if this is a consideration and you need complex virtual networking configurations then this may be a deciding factor.

Also, running linux under Virtual PC works but it is not remotely supported... go figure, and you will have to do some tweaking to get it to run in graphical mode.

-Vapor

yukit · #12 Post by **yukit** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 4:30 am

For Virtual PC users, Virtual PC Guy (he is the Program Manager) blog is a good resource:
http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/

VMware also has a utility to convert Virtual PC VM to VMware VM:
Virtual Machine Importer
http://www.vmware.com/download/vmimporter.html

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