Linked by Roberto Dohnert on Mon 23rd Jun 2003 02:31 UTC
If you have a mixed network like I do sometimes you have to compromise. At my job we run Windows, Linux and a sole Mac (Graphics dept.) and lets face it, when you do consulting work and if you design and develop custom applications you have to be able to develop for your clients platform and as much as I hate it, it's a Windows world. Before I used to have 2 workstations, one Windows and one Linux, or I had to dual boot. In the past, virtual machines have been lacking. Either they were too slow or lacking a certain pizazz to get the job done. Enter VMWare Workstation 4.
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VMWare Workstation 4.0 costs US $299.
Here is what I've just found on Ebay :
IBM PC 300PL, Pentium II 450 MHz, 64 MB RAM, 6.4 GB hard drive : US $94
Compaq Deskpro EN, Pentium II 450 MHz, 10 GB hard drive, 256 MB RAM : US $90
Intergraph TD-260, Pentium II 400 MHz, 192 MB RAm, 6.4 GB hard drive : US $70
Sun Ultra 5, 360 MHz, 128 MB RAM, 8.4 GB, Solaris 9 : US $215
According to the above, with US $299, I can get either one of these choices :
three brand name Pentium II 400/450 MHz or
a Sun Ultra 5 and an Intergraph TD-260
The specs of the computers mentioned above show they have enough juice to run most OSes that VMWare 4.0 supports, plus many others (Solaris 9, NetBSD, OpenBSD, QNX, ...).
Now, why would I pay for VMWare instead of creating a network comprised of these machines and a big bad server that would have been the host OS ? I have read the documentation on VMWare and I still don't see why it's such a good investment.
That software supposedly allows a business to "build complex networks all on a single computer". Isn't this kind of configuration a security nightmare ?
Also, when it is written that VMWAre Workstation 4.0 "eliminates costly deployment and maintenance problems", I wonder what's so tough in maintaining a BSD or Linux distro that has been properly installed on a dedicated computer ?
Unless the host OS is linux, Netware or FreeBSD, I suppose a copy of Windows is already available. So, all one has to do is buy some used computers, make them part of the existing network and voila ! they're ready to test the software they've just created on another platform.
I'm just trying to understand the rationale behind VMWare, considering that quality computers are affordable these days and that of all the hosts OSes supported by that product, only Windows and Netware must be bought.