[geeks] VMware Player has a purpose!

[Lionel Peterson]

Hello all,

I'm in the process of playing with my new laptop (which I actually decided to upgrade before I opened the box - I returned it for a similar laptop (Inspiron 1525)[0]), and I took a look into virtualization software to run *under* Vista (Vista as host), and found that VMware Server does not have "signed" drivers, so I have to boot the laptop into a special "do not enforce signed driver requirement" mode to use VMware Server, and Virtual PC has issues with Ubuntu, and it doesn't like Vista Home Premium (not a supported platform). So I went to VMware's web site and realized that since Workstation runs under VIsta without complaint, maybe Player does as well. It does.

So now I can run VMs built on other machines inside VMware without issue - I can also make VMs inside Player, but it takes a tiny bit of fiddling (edit a text file and create a HD file)[1], but no great effort really...

Now I know why VMware Player exists - to fill the gap until their Server product can run under VIsta/Server 2008 (both of which *require* signed drivers, but can be over-ridden)...

Lionel

[0] but this one has 3 Gigs of RAM (not 2), 250 Gig HD (not 160), a faster CPU (Core 2 Duo (not dual Pentium), larger cache (2 Meg not 1), and faster clock speed (1.83 vs. 1.73 GHz)) and a larger 9 cell (not 6) battery for $200 more. While it was a 40% increase over the original laptop, I think the upgrades justify the added expense. Link: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8770671&type=product&id=1203815682805

[1] http://www.easyvmx.com/ or for a more manual method, see: http://www.linux.com/articles/54411