[PLUG] Win4Lin vs VMware (was LCD Monitor ... )

Eli Stair eli.stair at gmail.com
Fri Dec 16 19:37:32 UTC 2005


It's worth noting that the "Free[1]" version of VMWare Player allows
running of native VMware entities.  I'm currently evaluating this to
significantly[2] reduce the licensing costs for use.  I still have
concerns of feature-set and the lifetime of this pricing model.  If
it's possible to pay only for per-session licensing for the full
version used to create and modify guest OS installations, but run the
Player unlimited-ly, then it's a significant boon to instances like
mine:

1000+ node clusters with (currently) licensing per-guest to run a
Windows app inside the Linux host.  This currently keeps us (and other
installations I've worked at) from even going this route on a
large-scale.

-1:  This is still proprietary, closed-source, and subject to
licensing restrictions.
-2:  This is IMO a good idea for VMWare, as the costs of use can sum
up to be staggering for what amounts to a 'workaround' .  The MS tax
is bad enough if you "need" it for some purpose.  If this works out
for them, they well may see more revenue from people actually buying
licenses for the product :)

/eli

On 12/16/05, Keith Lofstrom <keithl at kl-ic.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 16, 2005 at 11:18:11AM -0800, plug_0 at robinson-west.com wrote:
> > What's better, win4lin or vmware?  I'm trying the vmware 5.5
> > workstation trial, but admittedly I'm chafing at the sticker price.
> > $105.00 seems awfully high, although rebooting all the time is an
> > awful pain.
>
> VMWare is probably a better product all around - I understand the
> emulation is better.  I use Win4Lin version 4 because I prefer to
> store files in native Linux format.  Neither product is open source,
> which can be a royal pain in the ass when connecting these to a
> kernel.
>
> All these emulators are spendy - and VMWare used to cost more like
> $400, but the price has eroded because of the competition with
> Win4Lin.  If you can wait, I imagine somebody will come out with
> an open source windows emulator based on Xen someday.
>
> Keith
>
> --
> Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
> KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
> Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs
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