Hi,
is the free vmware server software suitable for programmers?
I'm a little confused between the free server version and the paid workstation version.
What is the server version really? Can I run it on my desktop?
I've installed virtualPC by MS alerady, but want to look at vm's also.
Yes, you can use the (ESX I believe) server for free on your desktop, I would recommend it if you do multiplatform development.
For example you need to test your application in linux 32 bit and 64 bit, maybe solaris and windows aswell.
One of the things you should be careful about is that you configure everything properly. If you don't you might end up having to wait a few minutes before your OS is fully started because it loads all kinds of drivers and maybe machines on boot.
It is also nice to use as tool to create your own images, for example to mimic your production environment. This was not possible with the VM player last time I checked.
Sorry, it doesn't really answer your question, but I personally chose to use VirtualBox instead of VMWare, partially because of the exact issue you've run into. Trying to figure out what VMWare products I was allowed to use and how I was allowed to use them would have taken more time than getting everything set up in VirtualBox did.
VMWare Server is great, I use it for compartamentalizing different projects which require different setups and would recommend it if you require different environment setups and your machine has enough resources.
VMWare ESX is not free, thus not for you.
VMWare ESXi is free, but can't run on top of an OS installation, thus might not be for you.
VMWare Player plays virtual machines... but i'm not familiar with it. (See other replies).
VMWare Workstation is only free for 30 days.
VMware Server can be run on the desktop, but there are a few things why you might want the Workstation version instead:
It has support for debugging in the VM, using either Visual Studio or Eclipse.
It has a better, faster user interface. VMware Server used to come with a usable console program, but the version 2 comes with a browser-based UI.
In the most recent version you can have windows from the VM show up directly on your desktop.
A good thing with the Server version is that it runs as a service, so you can have VMs start automatically in the background, even before you log on.
I use Parallels and VirtualPC.
Parallels on win desktop and OS X desktop, and Virtual PC running multiple linux builds (all headless) on Server 2003. The free VMWare is fine but I know it has some limitations. I just found VM a bitch to setup and config when most of the other VM's work instantly out of box.
VMware Server runs as a service so is more suited to server-like tasks. It's also more restricted when it comes to interfacing with the hardware on the host machine, for example USB support was only recently added and I believe is limited to two devices.
VMware server also has (IMO) the worst configuration and management interface of all the VMware products, since it's designed to be managed remotely and is web-based.
Instead you might want to try VMware Player which is free and can run any VMware Virtual Machine. It's features are largely the same as VMware workstation, the limit being that Player is unable to create new virtual machines. This is something you do very infrequently however and there are other ways to create new machines. A Google search for "create VMware Virtual Machine" will give you plenty of options.
Vmware server is meant to run mostly in the background, with a web interface for you to control the VMs.
From there you can open a remote console through a browser plugin, which is capable of doing most things you'd need it to. (Although it strangely lacks a ctrl-alt-del button) There is no hardware acceleration support in server.
Workstation runs in usermode, so you start it after logging in. It runs as an application rather than a service. It also supports multiple snapshots, if you need to rollback changes often. Server only allows one snapshot per host.
Personally, I have a WinXP VM in VirtualBox that I've been using for development for the past year. VBox supports seamless mode in Linux, which was the primary reason I chose it over VMWare. I believe VMWare Fusion does the other way around, seamless mode for Linux or Windows on a Mac host, but they don't support this on a Linux or Windows host to my knowledge.
It has worked well so far, just one caveat: back up your virtual disk! Especially if you're going to play around with snapshots. And setup a source control system outside of the virtual environment so you can get at the code if the virtual disk is inaccessible.
The previous version of vmware server used the same UI as the workstation version (it seemed to support everything except snapshots).
The current version of vmware server, unfortunately has switched to a web browser based-UI which makes useful for what it's intended for, setting up virtual servers, but it's kind of clunky for doing development work.
I use VMWare Server 2 on my development machine to run VS2008 and WSS inside Server 2003 for developing Sharepoint Web Parts.
I'm sure there are other uses for such a setup, but for my needs, it's completely sufficient.
I debated getting the "free" version of either MS or VMWare, but decided to splurge and the the $189 VMWare workstation - got to say its probably the cheapest money I have every spent. The tool is awesome, and was up and running in no time.
I can't believe I waited so long to setup vitrualization on my development machine. Once you use it, you won't think about the money you spent for more than 5 minutes.
I guess my point is don't let the small amount of money be the deciding factor in what you choose or use. This software is probably worth many thousands of dollars for the flexibility it gives you. If you can find a free tool that suits your needs, by all means use it. But, for $189 you get an unbelievable amount of value for your money.
Virtualisation is useful for the following:
Free Server:
Workstation:
Xen:
VirtualBox:
Qemu:
VMWare Workstation gets you (on top of the free version)
I'd also check out http://stackoverflow.com/questions/66317/which-is-the-best-vm-program-for-a-programmer
Virtualization is now a commodity product, basic simple software is free and will do the job. If you're doing software development on a commercial level day in day out, then you will really appreciate the advanced features found in Workstation.
Purchasing a VMWare Workstation license is well worth the money, it's a drop in the bucket compared to what you're paying for Visual Studio, Windows and all the other software that you're most likely using.
For people who find this thread at a later date, its also worth adding that VMware Server is only supported on (read: only installs on) server OS's. I tried installing it on Vista but it didn't work. I'm pretty sure it won't intall on XP either. This may rule-out its use on a dev machine.
I use VMware Server and Workstation and they're both awesome products. My Android dev environment is in a Workstation VM and that works really well for me. I also run some old games in an XP VM and find the graphics support to be pretty good.