The hangs in the kde interface turns out to be a problem,with kwin not vmware . I've found workarounds via ZGoogle, but haven't tested sufficiently to know if they solve the problem.
So far so good (1 day).
The fixes are workarounds for bugs https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kde-workspace/+bug/1394391reported in Ubuntu and KDE
Setting triple buffering on in xorg.conf and exporting __GL_YIELD="USLEEP" before kwin launches seem to work.
xorg.conf
Section "Device"
...
Option "TripleBuffer" "True"
...
EndSection
~.kde/Autostart
# /bin/sh
export __GL_YIELD="USLEEP"
kwin --replace &
