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VMware Player 3 in-depth review

Page history last edited by Ben 14 years, 3 months ago

I last used VMware Player two years or so ago, and although it was a nice product and worked well, overall, as I recall, it was difficult to install, difficult to configure Virtual Private Networking with the host, difficult to setup shared folders, and lacked USB 2.0 support, and was prone to the occasional crash.  Based upon my recollections, I'd have to say that this new version, Player 3.0, may be the most improved software product in computer history!  It installs easily with two clicks, (the second click being to approve the EULA), and as you will see as the review proceeds, the user interface has been greatly simplified, clarified, and idiot-proofed.  You'd have to really work at it to screw it up.  Over all, the product presents a very polished, professional look, is easy to configure, easy to use, and runs noticeably faster than VirtualBox, on the same hardware.  After using it for several days, I have found no bugs, and experienced no crashes.  It just works, and it works very well!

 

 

1)  You can now create a new VM directly from player.  No need to have VMware Server edition or use a third-party website to create a new VM.  The creation of new VM's is largely automated.  You just insert the disk of the OS you intend to install, and Player detects the OS and sets all the parameters in the VM to settings appropriate for that OS.

 

 

2)  Installing Windows XP in a VM was largely automated, and was by far the easiest Windows install I've ever done.  You can convert some existing competitors VM's to work with Player, but unfortunately, VBox is not included, so you will probably have to create one from scratch, but the automation takes a lot of the sting out of the process.

 

 

 

VMware Tools, their equivalent of VBox Extras in VirtualBox, are installed automatically, upon the first boot of your newly installed Guest OS,enabling mouse pointer integration, higher screen resolutions, and numerous other features.  Available USB devices are mounted automatically at boot time, although you can choose not to mount some or all of them from a requester window which pops up at startup.  Since USB devices can be mounted only to the Host or to the Guest, but not to both simultaneously, you may choose not to mount certain devices to the guest, so that they remain available to the Host.

 

 

3)  It runs faster on my 2.2 Ghz AMD PC, than VBox ever dreamed of.  I'd estimate it to be very near native speed, and my machine is no hot rod.  Someone with a faster computer, probably would be unable to detect any drop in speed.

 

4)  I've been trying for two solid years to get the drivers for my Mom's Kodak all-in-one printer to work in a Windows guest under VBox, and while each new version seemed to bring me a tantalizing bit closer to my goal, it never quite got there.   Under Player, the printer and scanner worked perfectly on the first try.  Now for me, the "Holy Grail" for virtual machines would be to enable me to use hardware direct from my Linux desktop and apps, even if there are no Linux drivers available for that particular hardware.  Now, that may very well not even be possible, but with VMware's new Player, I have found a work-around.  I can set my Linux default printer to PDF, and save the PDF file to a shared folder accessible to the Windows guest.  Then it's a simple matter of opening the file in Acrobat Reader from the Windows guest, and hitting the Print button.  Not a perfect solution, admittedly, but it does give me a way of printing output from my Linux programs as well as my Windows apps, on the Kodak printer, which until now has been just a large, ungainly door-stop under Linux.

 

5)  Setting up a Virtual Private Network between the Host and the Guest is as easy as ticking a checkbox, and it works flawlessly.

 

 

6)  The new player features a "Unity" mode, in which your guest machine's desktop disappears, and your guest OS's apps run directly on your Linux desktop, beside your Linux apps, just the way they do under Wine/Crossover, so there is no need to keep switching from one desktop window to another.  A menu button appears on your Linux host's desktop, giving you instant access to any applications installed on your guest OS, and they run transparently on your Linux desktop.  Very handy!

 

 

 

7)  Setting up my shared folders was also a snap, and I was able to easily map all of them as a single network drive on the Windows Guest.  This is a lot handier than having each shared folder mapped as a separate network drive, since it puts all your shared folders at your fingertips with just a double-click of the mouse.

 

 

 

Creating a new VM takes only a couple of minutes, and is easy as pie, but VMware Player makes it even simpler, by reusing a virtual machine you have already created in for example, another Linux distro you have installed on the same box.  While I have not yet tested this feature, it appears that you can simply tell Player to use an existing VM, and navigate to the location where that VM is stored, select it, and you're good to go.  The thing you need to be able to move from one host to another is the .vdi, the virtual drive with your guest OS and software installed, and I've been doing that with VBox for years.  If the new host is on the same machine as the old one, (i.e. a new Linux distro you have installed to check out), then all you have to do is create a new VM, tell it to use an existing hard drive, and point it to the location of your existing .vdi.  If the new Host is on a different machine, you will need to copy the existing .vdi over to the new machine.  Since these are generally large files, between 5 and 10 Gigabytes, the easiest way to transfer a copy is across your LAN.  If that's not possible then you can use a Dual-layer DVD-R. or a USB thumb drive of appropriate size.  VMware player simplifies this process by giving you the option to divide your virtual drives into discrete 2 Gigabyte chunks, which can be moved separately, making the process even easier.

 

 

There you have it!  A fairly complete over-view of this new virtual machine product.  If you need or use a virtual machine on your system, I'd recommend you download and install the new Player.  You will find the setup to be simple and straight-forward, with each settings option clearly explained, so give it a try.  There are quite a number of features I have not touched on in this article, but they are, for the most part, self-explanatory, and a day or two of exploration is all you will need to familiarize yourself with them.  Before long, VMware Player will feel as comfortable as your favorite old sneakers, sans the odor.

 

Now I've been a fan of VBox for a long time now, so I don't say this lightly, but VBox 3.1 will have to be a quantum leap better than version 3.0, to offer much competition to VMware Player 3.0.      Ben

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