General Discussion

SingDeep · ‎05-19-2012

Hello, can someone please help me to locate the place to post this topic? I am blown away by how amazing VMWare has organized their discussion forums. There are so many products - so much to choose from!

I was just interested to try to find out if I (little me) can do desktop virtualization.

I just have a laptop, and I would love it if I could start from the beginning. I am about to wipe my hard drive clean and re-install everything - after backing up everything I hold dear.

I have always been a Windows guy... but it would be awesome to Install VMWare first - before anything else, to be able to toggle between op systems.

Where do I get started reading on this? Right now I guess I'm just a "gee whiz" guy.

I have seen VMWare in full action in a corporate environment, and I understand how you can take a "snapshot" of an op system to be played back later.

I guess I'm just asking if you can install VMWare first - before anything else - and then on top of that build any op sytem you want that is compatible with your hardware?

How much does that cost for the "little guy"?

The reason I am asking is because I am a programmer for something called Ariba (J2EE Procure to Pay). I would like to be able to set up a whole environment and give it to other developers. I would also like to play with this idea on my own, such as playing with Linux for my first time.

Any ideas? Thanks!

SingDeep · ‎05-19-2012

OK I guess I'm not done on my soap box for tonight. VMWare should be everywhere!

Any time any computer is turned on just after the BIOS it should ask what op system would you like to run?

It can auto-start whatever you want.... but if you press and hold a button it will give you a menu like the BIOS.

And then if you say that you want to install a new one, it should be able to take you there.... into a menu that can look at your whole computer, say what resources are allocated for something, and let you shove it aide to make room for a new operating system.

This should just be there - on every computer - always. Am I way off base here?

SingDeep · ‎05-19-2012

What I am saying would lend itself to the "Cloud computing" onramp for everyone.

RvdNieuwendijk · ‎05-19-2012

I think you have chosen the right community.

What you want would be nice to have but is not possible. You have to install Windows or Linux software first. After this you can install VMWare Workstation as an application. In VMware Workstation you can install other operating systems as a virtual machine. E.g. I am running Windows, Linux and ESXi clients as a guest OS in VMware Workstation.

I don't know what VMware Workstation will cost in your country. But you can always use the 60 day evaluation period to try the software.

Regards, Robert

Blog: https://rvdnieuwendijk.com/ | Twitter: @rvdnieuwendijk | Author of: https://www.packtpub.com/virtualization-and-cloud/learning-powercli-second-edition