VMWare

[foodog]

Victor Odhner wrote:
> 
> Thanks for the answers.  Here's another question.
> 
> Since I have a dual-boot setup, can I run Windows
> sometimes in stand-alone mode, and sometimes as
> a guest under Linux VMWare?
> 
> I've heard references to "installing" the guest
> OS into VMWare.  That wouldn't cut it.  I would
> need to be able to boot up one time under Win98,
> then another time go into Linux and run Win98
> as a guest OS referencing the same filesystem.
> 
> Is that possible?
> 
> Vic

You can do that, but you'll end up liking Windows even less than you do
now.  There are docs on the VMWare site that go into pretty good detail.
In short, you'll be running Windows on a "raw disk partition" as opposed
to a "virtual disk".  That part's pretty easy, BTW.  The pains will come
from switching the Windows install between two different hardware
configurations, real and virtual.

Windows supports what it calls "hardware profiles" that supposedly let
you accomplish the hardware swap. When I tried, the feature of making a
hardware device only visible from a selected profile didn't work.  YMMV,
especially if you're short on extra hardware and long on patience :-)

FWIW, I've used VMWare Workstation since 1.0 and just got 3.0 last week.
It's been mostly a joy the whole time.  I also use the GSX Server
product and don't have many complaints*.  I've been running a virtual
instance of Redhat 6.2 as my (not my site's) primary nameserver since
last November and it's performed great.  We've also used it to host a
Win2K server serving Ghost images with multicast, with really good
performance.

VMWare is _really_ good about demos, btw.  You can download the
workstation version and they'll send you a 30-day eval license - they've
even been known to extend the demo another 30 days. 

HTH, Steve

* my only gripe is that I'm still unable to bring up a Novell Netware
server in a virtual machine.  It's great for Linux and any flavor
Windows I've tried: 95, 98, 2000 and XP.