VMware and Gentoo
My new job requires that I use Windows. Sorta. Realistically, there isn’t all that much in terms of software that is forcing me to use Windows per se as for the most part everything I need to use is also available on Linux. The exception to this is Microsoft Outlook. And although I could use Thunderbird, and I haven’t ruled that out, I decided to explore the use of VMware.
I’d used VMware Workstation 3.2 way back when but hadn’t used it since. And since that time, I’ve switched from a supported Linux distro (Red Hat) to an unsupported distro (Gentoo); you can view the list of supported distros in the system requirements page linked off the Workstation 5.x release notes. Luckily, like most software vendors these days, VMware has a ‘try before you buy’ evaluation licence which is good for 30 days.
Thus far, Gentoo and VMware Workstation have worked perfectly together. I was able to install Windows XP using Workstation 5.5 running on my Gentoo laptop and encountered no issues with respect to Gentoo. The only issue I did encounter was with the Windows XP install; I had to call in my registration as I used my Dell Windows XP CD and Windows XP was smart enough to realize that my product key was for a Dell machine not the “VMware machine” I installed it on. In any case, my guest operating system is running perfectly and I can now test my web apps and such using IE without the need to use a separate machine altogether. If you haven’t yet checked out VMware, I highly recommend it.
Mon, 25 Sep 2006 18:50 Posted in Linux
