yum install vmware-server

[Robert L Cochran]

Les Mikesell wrote:
> David Timms wrote:
>> WipeOut wrote:
>>> Yes.. Vmware Server is free..
>> Correct, but not free as in open source, the license agreement is 
>> more restrictive, hence fedora can't include it
>>
>>  > You still need to get a license key from
>>> Vmware but thats free too.. :)
>> This also is a blocker even if the license was an acceptable open 
>> source license - if you install the package it refuses to run {until 
>> you retrieve and enter a license key}.
>>
>> xen (and other vm technologies) virtual machine in f7 now have a nice 
>> gui, that makes it heaps easier to set up.
>
> Vmware will run unmodified OS versions (as in windows too) in machines 
> that don't have VT capable CPU's.  The virtual machine images are 
> portable across Windows, Mac, and Linux hosts.  VMware can run the 
> vast number of downloadable pre-built images here: 
> http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/directory/.  Xen may have other 
> advantages but there are still reasons to run VMware - and the price 
> is right.
>
I just installed VMware Workstation 6 on a Fedora 7 host after spending 
a couple weeks using xen, again on a Fedora 7 host. My big problem with 
xen is that it lacks a nice graphical console that I can do real work in 
with a bunch of guest OSes without straining my eyes to see the tiny, 
non-resizeable windows.

VMWare is like a breath of fresh air to me. There is copious 
documentation telling me step by step how to get started and what to do. 
I did run into some trouble with the vmware-config.pl script owing to 
the 2.6.22 kernel, but I found a patch on the VMWare forums and after a 
little trying, the install succeeded. I had no trouble installing the 
CentOS 5 guest (I needed a driver floppy because CentOS 5's installer 
doesn't have a model for the Realtek 8169B...found the needed image file 
on the CentOS 5 forums.) For me the best news is that with the vmware 
tools, I can resize the guest OS window into something I can actually 
see and work with. There's a lot of technical documentation on the 
VMWare site I can refer to. It helps me get up and running fast. I have 
a few problems, the worst is that the guest OS's clock falls behind the 
actual time by a big difference -- 45 minutes slow with my first long 
work session in the guest. I hope to find a fix for that.

So far I am very pleased with VMWare and I'm just coming to appreciate 
how nice virtualization is.

Bob Cochran
Greenbelt, Maryland, USA