VMware Server and Ubuntu Linux
Recently I tried out the following free virtualization packages:
- Microsoft Virtual Server 2005
- Microsoft Virtual PC 2007
- VMware Server
with the following free Linux distributions:
The Microsoft virtualization packages technically support only Microsoft operating systems, but supposedly they can run Linux too. I didn't have any success with booting a Linux installation on either product though and didn't feel like messing with it if it wasn't straightforward. VMware Server is free, straightforward, and ran all the Linux distributions I tried with no problems. It's a great product.
Once VMware Server was running, I tried installing Debian, Fedora, and Ubuntu to compare a couple Linux distributions. Debian alone isn't easy enough to use for my taste. Fedora is pretty bulky and the setup disc alone was a 2.8GB download. Ubuntu was my favorite by far. It's built on Debian and defaults to the Gnome GUI. It looks great and was easy to install and configure. Ubuntu Linux is a great free alternative to anyone wanting to avoid the cost of Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac OS X.