So is Windows 7 supported in View 4 or not?

[Peter_Grant]

Great View 4 is out, I've got customers keen to look at this the problem is they don't want Vista and don't want to deploy a 9 year old OS (XP) that is now 2 versions behind.

Bring on Windows 7...um...except how many responsible organisations are going to deploy an 'experimental' OS (from VMwares point of View) in production. I'd say very few,

So where does that leave us? VMware say that they have "(Experimental) Windows 7 Support" Does this mean we can deploy Windows 7 and they will actually support it?

Do other people see this as something which might hold back the take up of View? I'm interested in your thoughts.

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Peter Grant

Virtualization Consultant

Xtravirt.com

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[mclark]

There is a discussion here (http://communities.vmware.com/thread/240210) about what "Experimental" means. It points to a doc here () that defines experimental. Basically, it sounds like they think it works, and they may try to help, but they don't commit to solving anything with it. Sounds like try at your own risk, and be aware you may not get help. I think they do try to help though, because Windows 2008 R2 is experimental, but they have KB articles about issues that have been found and how to work around them (a.k.a. not installing the VMware SVGA driver in 2008 R2 - which I found out the hard way after rebooting the R2 VM several times when it "locked up").

Personally, I am going to try it as soon as I get View 4 downloaded. We are going to start a View deployment, and I want to start the Windows 7 rollout using View. I am hoping that the "experimental" goes away pretty fast since Windows 7 seems to be so popular and all the trade mags are saying to go to it when considering new desktop deployments. I don't think VMware can sit on the "experimental" tag too long with it or 2008 R2. But that's just my opinion.

[Peter_Grant]

Thanks for your comments. Reading more and more literature yesterday on View 4 VMware really tout this upgrade to Windows 7 line. It certainly implies that they may support it soon. I'd love to get some comments from VMware saying something like "we hope to support it in the first half of 2010" or something. Wishful thinking perhaps?

Anyone else out there looking at VDI and prepared to use Windows 7?...or are we waiting for full support?

[christoph_wegen]

So where does that leave us?

If full Windows 7 support is an important driver, then I see the following options:

1. Wait until VMware supports Windows 7 (The only product that supports Windows 7 now is Workstation. )

2. Evaluate competitive offerings that already offer full Windows 7 support now. (I can think of at least two products that are available now with full Windows 7 support)

Christoph

UPDATE: Just had a quick look again and there are THREE competitors who fully support Windows 7 in their VDI products now.