This is an opinion on VMWAre 2.02 for Windows trial edition that I downloaded from www.vmware.com The retail price is $300.00, I think, so it's kinda expensive.

My technical spec: Windows 2000 Pro on dual PIII-733 with 256 MB PC700 RAM, 40GB Western Digital EIDE HD.

My purpose: I am a graphics student who uses Graphics programs on Windows, but needs to code on Linux. I thought about downloading Redhat 7.0 or Mandrake 7.2 or some other variant and putting it on a dual boot configuration, something I have had a little experience with in the past. Then I read about VMWare on a magazine. It can run a (guest) machine, with whatever OS you throw at it, within Windows (theres also a Linux version). I like the thought of not having to restart everytime I need to access my code, so I gave it a shot.

I downloaded the ~5MB file (I thought that's impressive, since something that small's going to emulate a whole system : processor, graphics, hard drive, and Networking). That installed very easily, just like any windows program.

Then I downloaded the mammoth Mandrake 8.0 (the new version), the whole gigabite worth of linux software. That took a whole night. I burned them to 2 cds and that's where the journey started.

I setup the Virtual Machine in VMWare (setup IDE, virtual Hard disk (maximum 2GB, I think), designate how much RAM for each guest OS, I/O ports and so on). That was very easy. Installing the Guest OS was much more painful.


I installed, failed, installed again, failed again and over and over until I finally got it working. I figured out that what I need is to load the Mandrake Installer in text mode, do an 'expert' mode instead of 'recommended' mode, and setup LILO (bootloader) on text mode, skip Mandrake's XFree86 and install VMWare's own modification of XFree86. If you see how specific these requirements are, you'll understand how many times I had to try and try.

Bridged Networking works perfect, so you can use Netscape in a Linux guest OS. You can use the floppy and cd-rom, but I still can't work the bridged printing (Laserjet 6L on local, CUPS system). The mouse scroll wheel don't work, but that don't mean much.

Speed is very good, and even better for SMP Machine (Linux guest won't recognize the Multiprocessor but the Win2k base will allocate the jobs efficiently). The display is excellent at 32-bit 1024*768 full screen (probably a bit high and hampering the speed) once U got the VM's XFree86 working. My favorite feature is 'suspend', you can save the state of your guest OS so you can instantly start Linux without waiting it to boot. I like it so much, I actually am considering buying the program's license after the trial period ends

So that's it. The program itself is very easy to set up, but guest OS's aren't. The VMWare website has directions to setting up some OS's (all Windows variants and outdated Linux versions). Even following those instructions might take patience and trial&error; installing OS's that aren't on the list is even more challenging. If you feel like you need to multitask different OS's, get the trial. It ain't easy, but it might well be the one for you.

Recommended: Yes