On Wed, 25 Jul 2001 09:24, Judith Miner wrote:
> John wrote:
> >> VM is dearest by miles. Not sure of this one - seems to be similar
>
> in CPU demand to Windoze . <<
>
> I think they have a version called VMWare Personal or something like
> that. I saw it on their Web site. It is a "lite" version of the full
> VMWare that gives you, I think, just one virtual computer, whereas the
> expensive version lets you have a bunch of them. There are other
> differences, but for a single user it seemed to do the basics--let you
> run a real version of Windows without leaving Linux. I think the price
> was US $90 to $99.
>
> You do, of course, have to supply a copy of Windows if you want it to
> run under VMWare.
> --Judy Miner
VMware Express is not worth getting. It is basically VMware Workstation cut
down to a level comparable to Win4Lin, both price and feature wise. Like
Win4Lin, it can only run Win95/98 and only one at a time (VMware Workstation
can handle a number of different OSs and can even have several open at once).
Unlike VMware Workstation, VMware Express doesn't allow you to use a
pre-existing Windows partition. Instead, you must install Windos into a
virtual partition in a file, slowing things down. In contrast, Win4Lin lets
you install Windos _directly_ onto your GNU/Linux partition (this is the only
way you can install), so you can benefit from the superior speed of
filesystems (in comparison to FAT) like Ext2 and ReiserFS.
A quick check of the VMware site shows that VMware Express costs $US49.95,
which is cheaper than Win4Lin's $US79.99. In comparison, VMware Workstation
costs $US299. If I had the choice between VMware Express and Win4Lin, I would
pick Win4Lin, despite its higher price. It has been said that it is as fast
or even faster than running Windos natively.
There is also Connectix Virtual PC
(http://www.connectix.com/products/vpc4w.html), but I know very little about
this product.
--
Sridhar Dhanapalan.
"There are two major products that come from Berkeley:
LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence."
-- Jeremy S. Anderson
