“Part of what I do involves trying out and working with a large number of Linux distributions. It’s important for me to know what’s out there and how it compares with other products. When I’m not being a writer, I run a small computer consulting business that makes similar demands. My customers expect me to support and work in a number of different environments and operating systems.” Read the rest of the article at UnixReview.
Review: VMware Workstation 4.0.5
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Is there any information about AMD64 support (at least host) in VMWare?
Is there any noticable difference between 4.0.1, and 4.0.5 as far as performance?
VMWare 4.05 will run on an AMD64 system, but not with a 64-bit kernel. So if you want to use it on an AMD64 system, you’ll have to use an i386 distro for now.
This is the trouble with proprietary software — you’re at the mercy of a closed-source company for enhancements and expanded functionality.
-Jem
wish they implement on using natve win32 drivers than emulated drivers. i tried the demo its really good
“For the developer who needs to work under or write code for different platforms, the advantage of this technology should be immediately apparent. VMware makes it possible to test or play with different OS releases without having to dual-boot (or triple…) or install on multiple systems.”
Funny because last time i checked, Bochs and UML are popular among developers for such task. For example in the OpenBSD camp Bochs is (there’s even no native port to run VMware on OpenBSD as host OS).
In the conclusion the reviewer claims he cannot imagine how we lived without VMware and recommends the reader to try it out.
Isn’t it possible the reviewer actually needs a VM or emulator for a specific purpose, ie. running MSDOS (apps) or Windows (apps)?
How can the reviewer recommend something in an objective manner when he does not know about competetive products? He names performance as a disadvantage yet doesn’t point out how the performance between VMware and competitors is.
Actually how can you know VMware is the right tool for you without trying out something else which does or should do the same job for you too? What really matters these days is extensive compares between the various VM’s and emulators. Bochs, Win4lin, DOSbox, DOSemu, WINE, CrossOver — to name a few.
Here’s 2:
VirtualPC 2004 vs. VMWare 4 Performance Review:
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=5887
Virtual PC 5.2 for Windows Released; VMWare 4.0 Next Week:
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=3125
This is the trouble with proprietary software — you’re at the mercy of a closed-source company for enhancements and expanded functionality.
Of course, the quality of OSS equivalents to VMWare should demonstrate that in some cases, it’s worth it.
Excuse my ignorance but I`ve read that the x86 instruction set is not really geared up for virtual machines – although you can get around the problems.
Have the 64 bit extensions provided by AMD addressed this issue i.e. made things easier for the development of this type of software ?
There was a bit of discussion on the amd64 mailing list, but I don’t think so.