What It Does

Why?

• Because we can
  • Increased CPU speeds and
  • Higher Memeory capacities (Thanx to Moore's Law) allow for:
  • 2 (or more) computers in one!
• Archival Reasons
  • Your favorite program runs in an older/alternate OS
  • Your data can only be read by the program above
  • Use as a platform for updating and re-archiving your archives
• Vendor Lock-in/Lock-out
  
  • Run Windows programs in a Linux environment
  • Run Linux programs in a Windows environment
• Sandbox Protection
  • Safe Surfing
  • Test Bed for questionable programs
• Distribution and Sharing
  • Anyone can quickly use preconfigured programs/workstations without any installation or configuration hassles.
  • Share your setup with your 'support team' for easier troubleshooting.

Where To Get It

Using

Creating Your Own Virtual Machine

## free VMware Player (www.vmware.com) minimal configuration
## file for virtually running Live-CD (or an .iso file)

config.version = "8"
virtualHW.version = "3"

nvram = "Win98.nvram"

memsize = "256"
mainMem.useNamedFile = "FALSE"

## Here you need to specify the guest os, that is the os that
## VMware Player  will run. Possible choices are:
##  "dos"
##  "freebsd" ............ generic freebsd distribution
##  "netware6" ........... netware 6
##  "other24xlinux" ...... generic distribution with the linux 2.4.x kernel
##  "other26xlinux ....... generic distribution with the linux 2.6.x kernel
##  "otherlinux" ......... generic distribution with the linux kernel
##  "redhat" ............. red hat linux (fedora?)
##  "solaris10" .......... solaris 10
##  "suse" ............... suse linux
##  "win95" .............. windows 95
##  "win98" .............. windows 98
##  "winme" .............. windows me
##  "winnt" .............. windows nt
##  "winnetstandard" ..... windows server 2003 standard edition
##  "winxphome" .......... windows xp home
##  "winxppro" ........... windows xp professional

guestOS = "win98"

###Virtual Hard Drive
ide0:0.present = "TRUE"
ide0:0.fileName = "hd_005gb.vmdk"

###CDROM
ide1:0.present = "TRUE"
ide1:0.startConnected = "TRUE"
ide1:0.autodetect = "TRUE"

##Physical CD
ide1:0.fileName = "auto detect"
ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"

##Image file
#ide1:0.fileName = "DSL-2.1.iso"
#ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-image"

##Networking
ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
ethernet0.connectionType = "bridged"
ethernet0.virtualDev = "vlance"

##USB
usb.present = "TRUE"

##Video
#uncomment & set to desktop size if needed
#svga.maxWidth = "800"
#svga.maxHeight = "600"

Rejoice again.