VMWare Inc. Releases Free Virtual Machine Runtime

rfinnvik writes "VMWare Inc. has released a new free (as in beer) virtual machine runtime called VMware Player. According to VMWare, this free VM runtime makes it possible for anyone to run virtual machines created in their Workstation, GSX or ESX products. It also runs virtual machines created in Microsoft's virtualization products. The runtime is available for both Windows and Linux."

Re:Existing virtual machines?

[RLiegh]

As far as I'm aware, there is nothing out there which can create (Bochs and Qemu can read) VMWare disk images, and they're more advanced than simple raw or dd-created files with filesystems slapped onto them.

Re:This could be very cool for demoing Linux apps

[cerelib]

If you check out their prepackaged virtual machines you will see one called "Browser Appliance". I think it is essentially a sandbox machine that just runs a browser isolated from your host OS.

Or you could download Ubuntu

[Solr_Flare]

Unbuntu has two different versions. One is an install CD, the other is a run CD that lets you launch linux from disc without installing anything. Now, of course, the CD version is going to be more limited, but given that you can read/write fat32 and network NTFS(and read local NTFS) you can still do a decent bit with it. It's not bad at all if you just want to give linux a whirl and see what it is all about/teach yourself how to use some aspects of linux.

Excellent for "black sheep" corporate Linux users.

[GiMP]

Need to run Linux at work but corporate policy won't let you? (or plan to install Linux anyway, but need that killer-app for Windows?)... Boss won't buy you a copy of VMWare?

Buy your own copy for personal use and simply install this "player" on your work PC. Need multiple users wanting to emulate an OS and don't have terribly high demands? One copy of vmware... multiple players.

I'm drooling.

Re:Soft bigotry of "Inc." suffix?

[croddy]

I suppose this is only a problem if you're already bigoted against anything "Inc."

Re:This could be very cool for demoing Linux apps

[way2trivial]

pfft.. think, limited time trials of EXPENSIVE apps,, that you can 'roll back' to the original date

Re:Another option

[Anonymous Coward]

Why would I want to use a time-limited demo when I can simply download VMWare, spend five minutes finding a keygen for it, and then have a permanent VM solution? (this question also applies to MS's Virtual PC, I should add).

VM Machine Building For Free

[nurb432]

You can get a free 30 day license from VMware for their regular product.

Make as many VM's you want and when it expires you can still use the 'runtime' thing.

Re:Xen is not a competitor to VMWare

[Anonymous Coward]

You do know that you don't have to have the exact same feature set in order to be a competitor in the business world, right? Products that perform similar functions can still compete.

Create Marketing Buzz

[phorest]

Funny,

I was at a Microsoft event last month where the presenter was really talking up Microsoft® Virtual PC 2004 as being the cats meow. He actually spent 10 minutes out of the 3hr+ technet program to hawk it.

So..... I went to look it up after seeing the story posted (No, I didn't RTFA) but they had links to download a free 45 day trial and the listed price was ($129.00 MSRP) for the software title. So then I went to VMWare Inc's site to compare products and darn it if MS is undercutting their price by $60.00 ($189.00 MSRP)for their VMware Workstation 5.

Call me cynical but it smells like a little competitive marketing!

Re:feeling pressure from xen

[93 Escort Wagon]

"Sounds like they are feeling pressure from Xen and are trying to prevent the truely free OSS solution from gaining mindshare. They make a good product, but cost and closed source will limit them in the long run."

I really don't want to be a smart *ss, but whenever I read these sorts of comments here on /. I wonder "just what alternate universe are these people living in?"

I doubt most of the corporate types at VMware know that Xen even exists - let alone sees it as any sort of "competition".

Re:This could be very cool for demoing Linux apps

[notb4dinner]

By doing that you're still breaking the license agreement so it's really no better than pirating them.

"is" != "will soon"

[TimMann]

It's always tough for the present to compete with the glorious future.

Re:VM Machine Building For Free

[Anonymous Coward]

At some point the thread was about what the company legally lets you do: download a 30-day trial, use it to make all the images you can imagine needing, and then use the free player to run the images. Perfectly legal and sanctioned by the company, although they would probably prefer if you gave them money as well, and it would be nice to do so. There's not even a hint of fraud here, as opposed to the suggestion that the trial version might be tricked to continue beyond 30 days.

Re:Existing virtual machines?

[Decker-Mage]

Nope, nothing in the EULA for VMWare Workstation to prevent you from sharing/distributing images and I've read that sucker each and every time we do another beta/release candidate (mostly to catch typos). You're supposed to stockpile these puppies if you need them so you have a stack of testing platforms. Now I'd be real careful about Microsoft EULA's, but those are supposed to be modified here shortly, if they haven't been already.

Re:Small to Mid IT Folks - Is this a holy grail?

[Decker-Mage]

Actually I've been using VMWare Workstation version 2.0x for this purpose for years. I like to keep an eye on the dark-side so when I cruise their boards I have always used a VM to do it from. Anytime they glitch/hack/crack the VM, I would just restore from the snapshot. I'd also work this way anytime I was operating unprotected out their due to a 0-day security hole (Windows or *nix) so I could get my patches, tuck them into my shared folder, get safe again. Heck, I was running DC's on VMWare long before MS decided it was a bright idea. Crack my DC? Fine, restore from snapshot and off I go, after I patch of course

So, for a security standpoint, yes you can do this and I'd highly recommend it. Heck, security would be what I consider a natural market for this product as testers need something a bit more robust. VMWare must think the same given the Browser Alternative image that exists. Nice to see someone else thinking security first.

BTW, the way I'd approach it is to place a known good copy of whatever image you are going to use in a safe place, or burn it to CD, just remember to change permissions when you copy it off the CD to remove the write-protect (depending on how you copy it). Whenever the image gets totally wacked, which it will, restore from the copy. You'll lose any settings/bookmarks/cookies/etc., but this may be considered a good thing. Also do remember that there is the potential, since the VM will be sharing the connection in some way with the machine to have a worm crawl out of the VM and climb into the host OS. Small, but it is there. The way I solve this problem is to block all the ports between the VM and the Host on the host side, using a software firewall just on that adapter if you are running Windows in a VM on Windows. Windows on *nix, don't worry about it as hybrids haven't been successful (yet). Not perfect but if you don't have a separate machine to set up just for browsing that can be restored from image daily/hourly/whenever, this is about the next best thing.

Re:VM Machine Building For Free

[Anonymous Coward]

# apt-get install datefudge

$ dafefudge 01/01/2001 vmware &

Using it for months...