VMWare Workstation

VMware Workstation is powerful desktop virtualization software for software developers/testers and enterprise IT professionals that runs multiple operating systems simultaneously on a single PC. Users can run Windows, Linux, NetWare, or Solaris x86 in fully networked, portable virtual machines - no rebooting or hard drive partitioning required. VMware Workstation is the product that really kicked off the trend to PC virtualisation, and while there are a wide range of options to choose from, it remains one of the market leaders. However, it’s not just a wider range of products from other vendors that it has to compete against, there’s also competition from within VMware’s own product range, particularly the free VMware Server product.

VMware Workstation is a versatile virtual machine program that allows several operating systems to run inside of either a Windows or GNU/Linux host. This allows you to run a full, valid copy of Windows, Solaris, *BSD, or other GNU/Linux distributions inside of a standard GNU/Linux installation (or all of those OSes inside of Windows). Virtualization allows you to combine multiple systems together on one machine. While yes your individual systems will not be better in terms of speed and processing but most of what sane pro-virtualization enthusiasts are saying is combine these systems with little consumption together and use your money where it is needed.

Users can run Windows, Linux, NetWare, or Solaris x86 in fully networked, portable virtual machines - no rebooting or hard drive partitioning required. VMware Workstation delivers excellent performance and advanced features such as memory optimization and the ability to manage multi-tier configurations and multiple snapshots. Users can open and use a virtual machine in the new VMware Player, a free application that opens and plays a virtual machine created by VMware Workstation, GSX Server or ESX Server. This new feature allows users to preview how VMware Player will play virtual machines that can now be distributed freely to colleagues, part ners, customers, and clients who do not own VMware.

VM software makes it much easier to quickly reproduce a given customer scenario. Furthermore, you can set up a VM product to automatically discard your unique configuration changes when you’re finished with a particular deployment scenario, letting you resume customer support from a clean state. VMware products provide enterprise-class virtual machines that increase server utilization, performance, and system uptime, reducing the cost and complexity of delivering enterprise services. By leveraging your existing technology, VMware software enables the rollout of new applications with less risk and lower platform investments.

In summary, VMware Workstation is, in my opinion, the most powerful desktop virtualization package available. What’s interesting about VMware Workstation is that it can be used as a benchmark to see what’s coming down the road for VMware Server and VMware ESX Server. The Workstation product is almost like a new feature proving ground for VMware. VMware Workstation is powerful virtual machine software for developers and system administrators who want to revolutionize software development, testing and deployment in their enterprise. Shipping for more than five years and winner of over a dozen major product awards, VMware Workstation enables software developers to develop and test the most complex networked server-class applications running on Microsoft Windows, Linux or NetWare all on a single desktop.