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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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.
Wow - let's see:
1. You have a laptop and are a consultant. I need to be able to run Win 3.1, Win95, Win95 OSR2, Win98, Win 98SE, Win2000, WinXp Home, WinXP Professional, Linux (4-5 versions) due to customer requirements. According to you, I should just lug around 13 or so laptops?? Riduculous.
2. You want to run multiple servers and need to back them up every day - run them on one machine, and you only need one locally attached tape drive, only need one gigabit port, only need to deal with a single remote login for remote maintenance.
3. Server sonsolodation - only power for a single server - not 3,4,6,10 whatever. Let's not even talk about heat dissapation, cable management, port reduction (they are expensive when you are talking Cisco), backup, backup management.
Granted if you are just dorking around at home, buy some cheap 2nd-hand machines and a KVM and be done with it, but there are serious reasons for using VMWare - both the workstation version and the server version. Just because it may not be right for you, doesn't mean it isn't right for everyone.