VMWare

[John (EBo) David]

Victor Odhner wrote:
> 
> I find myself with a 1.3GHz processor and 256MB of memory.
> This is a dual-boot box, running Win98 or RedHat 7.1
> depending on my mood (and needs of other family members).
> 
> So:  Is it time for me to get VMWare, so that I can
> run Linux all the time and Windows on top of it as
> needed?

well...  I bought a copy nearly two years ago and I have been having
trouble running it off and on every since.

They do not (at least last time I checked) support the advanced kernel
features.  When I upgraded from SuSE 6.1 to 7.1 VMWare upchucked big
time and has refused to recompile the drivers ever since -- problem
64-bit kernel mode not supported.  They also have never gotten the SMP
stuff to work well enough to keep half the resources from thrashing.

Check their web site, I am under the impression that their newest
version will not run native on Linux, but will support it as a guest
OS.  At least that was my understanding when I looked it back up last
week to see if they had an upgrade to the drivers.

All in all VMWare looks impressive -- until you start to use the thing
seriously.  Your mileage may vary, particularly if you are running a
single processor machine and do not even try to push the envelope.  Fore
me it was a waste of money, and more importantly my time.

  EBo --