Virtual Machine/Server Software

afraser2k · 2 Feb 2006 at 09:39

I'm looking into buying a virtual machine package for home use, mainly for development and server purposes (especially LAMP).

I'm not exactly sure on what products are available other than VMWare or those offered by Microsoft and I'd like to know what people think of these products? My desktop at home runs Windows XP w/SP2 if it makes any difference.

afraser2k · 2 Feb 2006 at 09:44

It will run on my workstation. From the Microsoft Server trial it seemed that I could switch off the servers whenever I wanted to play games so I hope other software is capable.

I'm not familiar with Linux other than minor administration duties at work but the plan is to get more familiar as time goes on.

afraser2k · 2 Feb 2006 at 10:05

VMWare is sounding like the product I want now so I'll have a more in-depth look at their site.

Thanks for the advice.

afraser2k · 3 Feb 2006 at 11:43

Well I'm glad I didn't order any of that lot before today when I read:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/03/vmware_goes_free/

So I think I'll wait until the free VMWare Server is released .

afraser2k · 8 Feb 2006 at 11:27

Got it up and running on Windows XP (you need to disable default web site in IIS before VMWare will run due to hosting restrictions in XP). First virtual machine running Scientific Linux 4.2.

afraser2k · 8 Feb 2006 at 12:53

It does. If you look at the image I've taken it's in the VMWare product menu.