Virtual machines – introduction to VMWare Player
Posted by vmwarevirtualmachine on December 22, 2008
I downloaded a virtual computer from VMWare, maybe in the summer 2006, but never got to test it out until January 2007. I have to say I am amased!
While working on my PHP2XMI tool I needed to test the output on the famous Umbrello UML Modeller. This UML editor only runs on Linux, so I installed the virtual computer, called VMWare Player, but you need some operating system to work with it. So I downloaded the Linux variant Ubuntu 5.10 (they have an installation of this distribution called Browser Appliance, I will call this Ubunto from now on). I booted it up, and installed the UML editor. To communicate between the virtual computer (running Ubuntu) and my Windows operating system, I just share a folder in Windows, and access this folder through networking in Ubuntu. Maybe there are som better ways of sharing files, please tell me if you know a better solution.
To emulate a computer takes CPU power, and the operating systems I have tried, do run, ofcourse, more slowly than if you installed it directly to your hard drive. I do not think it is too slow to use for testing, but it depends what you are going to use it for. I would never run a 3d game or video editing for example, but that is also because I only have a 1GHz Pentium III processor.
I have also tried installing Windows 2000 in the virtual computer. I told the virtual computer where the image of my Windows 2000 install CD was, and started it. It booted up from the CD and started the installation
Get started yourself
To get started you need to download the virtual computer (software), called VMWare Player. Then you need an operating system, look for one you like at VMWares collection, or download the Browser Appliance (Ubuntu Linux 5.10 with Firefox).
An article on how to install your own operating software will come here later.
Hope you like this article, and please leave me a comment if there should be any questions or corrections to the article.
