Customer Reviews

VMWARE WORKSTATION 4.X for Linux

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After using Virtual PC, I decided to give vmware for linux a whirl and downloaded the demo. In short: it is fantastic. I've since purchased a full copy. My primary OS at home is linux, and being able to study for Microsoft certifications by using the virtual networking feature as well as developing .net code is otherworldly.. in a good way. No need for a multi-machine lab: just crank up a virtual server and a virtual client and off you go. Very robust is how I would describe this program, though I wouldn't even think of running it with anything under 2Ghz of cpu, a gig of ram, and 100 gig of hard drive.

My current usage for VMWARE is the following
Windows XP box
VMWARE is hosting REDHAT Linux.

VMWARE is truly a great product. When you go to VMWARE newsgroups you will see many troubles with getting networking to work correctly. I have had success but this product works for so many operating systems, it's hard to get understandable information (in my case the RedHat OS) to work with the product.

Another problem is that Redhat and many other Linux distros have evolved to a new version of it's GUI environment (XFree86 4.0). The problem is that out-of-the-box, VMWARE doesn't support this and you will have problems with VMWARE if you upgrade your environment to this version.

The last problem is related to Redhat 9.0. I'm not sure if the problem is directly related to VMWARE or Redhat. I have done a few clean installs on hardware dedicated to Redhat -- Pentium 4 Machines. When I try to install Redhat 9.0 with VMWARE, after about 30 minutes of installation, I get a corrupted file (I believe xpdf) and I can't easily skip this program and keep installing (skipping is not possible with RedHat 9). I eventually have to cancel the install and eventually install Redhat 8.0. For the most part, Redhat 9 is where most of the problem resides but I only have this problem when installing with VMWARE so VMWARE gets some of the blame.

I'm sure there are ways around all the problems above. For me, I purchase software like I purchase a car. When I put the key in the ignition and start the car, the car should work exactly as expected. I have no desire to tinker with what I just purchased to get the thing to work. With VMWARE, don't be surprised to get stuck tinkering for hours to get everything to work exactly as it's supposed to. Because of this, this product is getting 3 stars.

I won't be surprised if other users rate VMWARE with 5 stars. I'm sure future versions of this software will solve the problems that I have experienced above.

The VM capabilities are really impressive. Works well under Linux.
I only wish they would be direct when they say that running XP under VMWare on a native partition is "unsupported". The truth is it works great for the VMWare side. I was able to boot the machine either directly into XP or under VMWare. Unfortunately the Microsoft product is brain dead and the product key stuff always insists that it's different hardware. 5 stars for VMWare, 0 stars for Microsoft. If you need to run the Microsoft stuff occasionally, stick with an older release that doesn't have the obtrusive hardware detection stuff in it. Or always run the Microsoft stuff under VMWare.