* VMware Player lets users deploy VMware on any Windows or Linux PC
Virtualization is again at the top of the charts. VMware, an EMC company, last week made it easy for users to deploy its software on any Windows or Linux PC. XENsource, the open-source virtualization company, is also expected to announce software this month that allows users to manage virtual machines.
VMware Player lets users run virtual machines on their PCs to test software, deploy patches or test other application deployment scenarios without suffering from installation or configuration hassles.
VMware Player is a free product that interested users can download at the VMware Web site.
The tool installs as a desktop application and lets virtual machines operate in a separate window. It can be used to run 32- and 64-bit virtual machines on the same desktop PC.
An additional feature of VMware Player is its share capability, which lets users share a virtual machine.
The VMware Player is presently a beta product. A shipping version is expected to be available by year-end.
VMware Player has what the company claims is an intuitive user interface, which allows users to run preconfigured virtual machines that were created with VMware GSX or ESX Server. It will also run Microsoft Virtual PC and Virtual Server virtual machines and Symantec LiveState Recovery system images.
The company has also made a sample virtual machine available for download. The virtual machine is a light version of Ubuntu Linux with Firefox and a couple of other applications. VMware is calling it the Browser-Appliance. Browser-Appliance takes about 33M bytes to run and lets users run an Internet browser from within a virtual machine. The browser appliance virtual machine can be downloaded from the VMware Browser Appliance Virtual Machine Center.
Users can go to the VMware Virtual Machine Center to download virtual machines for NetWare, BEA, IBM, Red Hat, My SQL and Oracle.
