New to VMWare

[dellthinker]

Hi all, I'm a long time Linux user and will be forever so I use apps that are normally open source and what not. However I'm also a avid Windows Network Administrator with a Bachelors and Certifications and years of experience with Microsoft operating systems, I don't take sides to either OS I just find their weakness and strong points. In my situation I recently got a Dell Inspiron 1440, this laptop is built for Windows 7 however with a 500GB HD and Dual Pentium I took advantage of virtualization. So I installed Debian as my host and several versions of Windows as my guests. Turns out that Linux hardly supports this laptop and in order for me to fully experience it to the full capabilities I would have to install Windows 7 again as host. From one tech to another that's no big deal right, as long as I can install a virtual machine so I can enjoy both OSes right? Well up until today I've been using VirtualBox and their still weeding out issues with it. The whole reason I had to install Win7 as a host is because my Vista desktop wouldnt go completely full screen for whatever reason. So I installed Windows 7 x64Bit and it's running the way it's supposed to. I'm not naive by any means and I'll always try anything that 'works'. So I said all that to say this, I'm not happy with VirtualBox anymore and I've heard a lot about VMWare. What I'd like is someone to suggest to me what I should use as far as VMWare products for a Windows 7 x64Bit host. I'd like to know if anyone out there is using a Windows x64Bit host with VMWare and I'd like to know their experience. Thanx in advance!

[khughes]

First off welcome to the forums and to VMware. There is a few options you can go through, and this is coming from someone who is running Windows 7 x64 (Professional not that it matters). What you would probably want is VMware Workstation which will allow you to create/manage and run multiple VM's at one time. If you just wanted to run one VM you could go the free route (with a lot less functionality) which is VMware Player. That will just play VMware's virtual machines on your host, which is also fully functional for Windows 7 x64.

My recommendation is to download the trial of Workstation (I believe you get a 30 or 60 day trial) and run with that. If you only need one VM running at a time, then after your trial is up you can run the free Player application for as long as you want.

-- Kyle

"RParker wrote: I guess I was wrong, everything CAN be virtualized "

[dellthinker]

Thanx for the reply khugh, I've got a couple more questions if you don't mind. Have you ever ran guests other than Windows using VMWare Workstation? If so, how was hardware support? I ask because I've noticed that this laptop is reliant on Windows Vista/7 and nothing else. But I was hoping that I could use things such as 3D acceleration on a Linux guest with things like Avant Window Navigator and Compiz.

[khughes]

You can ask all the questions you want, granted not all of them will be answered but most of the time someone on here will know the answer...

As for your questions regarding guest OS's. Yes you can install more than just Windows in a virtual machine. Heck even with the new release of workstation you can install a VMware ESX server (the enterprise server virtualization product). A great source of information is on the documentation page for Workstation found here - http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/ws_pubs.html and another good page is the compatibility guide for software which will allow you to search for tested OS's that you can run within workstation (with VMware Tools). You can run other guest OS's that aren't on the list usually but the VMware tools are something that give you the functionality that you're looking for such as the improved graphics.That site is here -http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?deviceCategory=software

Hope that answered all your questions for now. If you have others you can either post here or open up a new thread.

-- Kyle

"RParker wrote: I guess I was wrong, everything CAN be virtualized "