VMware server on ubuntu !

Running Linux on all my computers gives me lots of power and stability !,

I'm currently running UBUNTU Feisty Fawn 7.04 and another server edition.

Depending just on Linux operating systems is great, but sometimes you are in need of windows in order to use windows only programs, check webpages in internet explorer , and the uses are endless.

I don't really like dual booting my desktop, so i've decided to create virtual machines !

I first tried Qemu, but it was too slow to use "Mouse responds slowly, installing OSes and applications take hours !"

I've finally reached VMware-server ! , it's a great emulator to use and operates at a speed nearly as fast as a real box would do !

Getting to install VMware server on ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn is not supported, but you can patch the server to work on Feisty Fawn. the server is not available as a Debian package , so you have to download it manually and do everything yourself "it's not really a hard job to do that though !"

here is a thread on the UBUNTU forums that will take you through the entire process easily

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=183209

I followed that thread and it got me up and running in no time !

the thing that wasn't mentioned is that VMware server requires a serial number that can be acquired for free by registering on the VMware website.

after getting through the installation simply run the vmware sever by typing
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vmware
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in your console, the window will show up and you can create a new machine from there.

I just loaded it up , created a new machine, inserted the windows XP bootable setup CD, and powered on the machine, it loaded normally , you can notice the mouse might be a bit slow and you might encounter some hiccups and slowdowns during installtion, this can be caused by anything slowing down the REAL machine you're using, so make sure you're not loading lots of apps and stuff before installing.

after windows has installed and run perfectly, the mouse was still slow and graphics were the same too, I installed VMware-tools to speed up the graphics and the mouse driver. this can be achived by clicking "VM" then "install vmware-tools"

this will start a setup program in your windows XP box that will fix all of the slow mouse troubles.

you can even run windows in a high screen resolution as you can do on a normal box and have it run in full screen mode, you won't notice the difference !:)

and you won't even need to dual boot, and when things get messy , you just delete it !!

Here are some screenshots of windows XP home edition running on a virtual machine:

in conclusion, I recommend VMware-server for this type of application of virtual machines !