Good move by VMware

VMware have released the VMware player a cut down play only Virtual Machine that will run images created using their VMware Workstation, ESX and GSX products.

This is a clever move by VMware, the VMware player will be especially useful in the Enterprise market where pre-installed demo images of serious heavy weight middleware and other applications are an easy way of providing try before you buy demos. The availability of a free player will help encourage software firms to use VMwares fully featured products to create such demo images.

The player could also help in the uptake of linux as well, there are plenty of pre-installed Linux ISO images out there such as Knoppix to use in VMware. This provides a free means for users to try out Linux while still running their Windows setup.

13 thoughts on “Good move by VMware

  1. I think the VMware Player is a great idea but I’m a little confused what it has to do with Knoppix (which runs straight from the CD so you can try it on a Windows computer).

    Are you saying that people can make an VM image with Knoppix and run that rather than the CD? If so, you can do that with any Linux distribution such as Ubuntu, SUSE or Fedora and not just the live CDs…..or am I missing something?

  2. Yes, you can create a VMware image of any Linux distribution but not in the VMware player only in VMware workstation, ESX etc.

    The point is that you can run Linux under Windows with VMware and get used to using it, quite often someone new to Linux will find themselves rebooting into Windows to perform a task they were unsure of under Linux, using VMware they don’t have that hassle.

    Using a live CD such as Knoppix you can have a basic VMware image and set the virtual CD drive to contain the Knoppix ISO. Then when you run the basic VMware image it will run Knoppix (or whatever other live distribution you have in there). It means you only need one basic VMware image and you can boot a range of Live CD distributions without having to create a seperate VMware image for each of them.

  3. Thanks for clearing that up Rob, I thought you were suggesting a custom “Knoppix” image. Using the player as you outline sounds like a brilliant idea!

  4. What I can’t wait for is a version of Knoppix with the VMWare player already loaded! I would love to be able to load up a live CD, then run VMs on my network inside of it……

    And if you’re wondering…. you can’t run a VM inside a VM 🙂 Gives a nice message that says “you can’t start a virtual machine while running inside a virtual machine”.

  5. Here’s a new twist, you can boot your knoppix image from a windows machine using PlasmaNetix. So, you don’t need to burn a CD and can boot multiple knoppix machines using VMWare or PXE bootable PCs.

  6. Basically what I want to do, is to create a VM of my current Windows PC on to an external drive, and then boot up a Knoppix (or other version of Linux) Live CD on that same computer, and then run the Windows VM from the external drive in the VM Player installed on the Knoppix Live CD distro. I’m sure it would require a fast processor and a lot of memory considering the Live CD will not be using any form of harddrive space. Using a VM’s (Linux, Windows, ect.) in Windows using the windows version of VM Player is what I’m doing now.

  7. Going a little offbeat. In case We create a Vmware Image of Softwares using a Trial vesrion. Can the Image be viewed by a VMWare Player, even when the Trial Version of the VMWare WorkStation we used to create has expired. ?

  8. I need a basic VMware image which allowed me to boot from any live CD to use it in VMware player. Could anyone provide me download link, please?
    I don’t have VMware workstation to create one.

Comments are closed.