A lot of us have asked and begged and hoped for a long time that VMware would distribute VMware Tools freely. A very nice step in the right direction was including the Tools in VMware Player. Not only for people rolling their own virtual machines, but also due to the fact that Player can run MS Virtual PC/Server images and Backup Exec system recovery images.

Now our prayers have been heard, and VMware added their own little twist that I never expected:
VMware Tools are now Open Source Software, licensed under GNU GPL v2.0 and the LGPL 2.1.

Here are the reasons why VMware chose GPL/LGPL (from the FAQ):

We chose the GPL v2 for the kernel components to be consistent with
the Linux kernel's license.
We chose the LGPL v2.1 for the user level components because some of the
code is implemented as shared libraries and we do not wish to restrict 
proprietary code from linking against those libraries.
For consistency, we decided to license the rest of the userlevel code
under the LGPL v2.1 as well.

Much more than just distributing VMware Tools, this will enable more operating systems (i.e. the newly open sourced QNX) to work inside VMware. Besides, there is nothing stopping the code (or parts of it) from being included in the Linux kernel.

If you are running a Linux distribution with sub-par support for VMware Tools, there's even some documentation available for you.

The hardware address generator EasyMAC! has been updated to version 1.1. It's now more suitable for any kind of use, not only for VMware.

After reading an article at the OpenVZ Wiki, I saw that people are using this little tool for other purposes than making MAC addresses for VMware.

So, the tool now makes completely random global MAC addresses, in addition to VMware specific addresses.

Head over to the download page for more info and downloads.

VMware player is actually quite a versatile piece of software. Chances are that you get yourself a virtual machine or two (as a virtual appliance or maybe you use EasyVMX! to create them), and you get on with your life.

With the new features of VMware Player 2.0, that's not bad at all.
You get shared folders, experimental support for SMP (more than one CPU), full Vista support, Drag-and-Drop between the host and the guest, USB 2.0, dynamic screen resolution, better sound support and much more.

Just running a virtual machine by itself may sound neat. But you can also use this in a QA process, or maybe even use it to distribute software.

But VMware Player has a few tricks up it's sleeve that you may not know about.

VMware Products

First of all, VMware Player can run virtual machines created by all the other VMware products. VMware Workstation, ESX Server, VMware Server and GSX Server.

Virtual PC/Server

But wait, there's more! Did you know that VMware Player could run MS Virtual PC and Virtual Server images?
Running VPC images is super smooth, thanks to the fact that VMware Player now includes VMware Tools. VMware Tools are all the drivers and applications that make an operating system work perfectly in a virtualized environment.

System Recovery

The VMware Player usability doesn't stop there.
Users of Symantec's Backup Exec can actually run System Recovery system images directly in Player. This is quite a feature for all you system administrators out there!

I promised you new EasyVMX! features to match the abilities of VMware Player 2.0.
All the new features are now completed, and you can find EasyVMX! 2.0 here!

Here's the complete list of new features:

• Windows Vista is no longer "Experimental"
• Default guest OS is Windows Vista
• Virtual Hardware version is 6 (Workstation 6)
• Sound is autodetected, and will work in Vista
• SVGA is autodetected, and will set the resolution automatically when resizing VMware
• The new enhanced virtual keyboard setting is on by default
• VMware Tools will be upgraded at power on
• Default when turning off a virtual machine is suspend (snapshot)
• Ability to reserve CDROM exclusively to the Virtual machine
• Wake-on-LAN for both network cards
• Shared Folder
• VNC - Remote Display
• Options for PowerOn and PowerOff
• The GuestOS list has been updated^*
• Tip: For better performance in Vista virtual machines, use SCSI disks

EasyVMX! 2.0 has not been fully tested, so use it with caution.

^*Only the new list of GuestOSes has made it to the stable version of EasyVMX! yet.

I've just compiled the list of supported operating systems in VMware Workstation 6. I'm putting it here for reference.

Click on "read more" for the whole list.

Use the list as you wish, but give a link back to this site if you publish it.

New, experimental support in WS6 for:

• 32-bit and 64-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.5 (Beta, formerly called 4.0 Update 5) as host and guest operating systems
• 32-bit and 64-bit SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 SP4 (Beta) as host and guest operating systems
• 32-bit and 64-bit Ubuntu Linux 7.04 as a guest operating system

New, full support in WS6 for:

• 32-bit and 64-bit Windows Vista as host and guest operating systems
• 32-bit and 64-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0 as host and guest operating systems
• 32-bit and 64-bit Ubuntu Linux 6.10 as host and guest operating systems
• 32-bit and 64-bit Mandriva Linux 2007 as host and guest operating systems
• 32-bit and 64-bit Solaris 10 Update 3 as guest operating system
• 32-bit Novell Netware 6.5 SP5 as guest operating system

Microsoft:
MS-DOS = dos
Windows 3.1 = win31
Windows 95 = win95
Windows 98 = win98
Windows ME = winme
Windows NT = winnt
Windows 2000 Professional = win2000pro
Windows 2000 Server = win2000serv
Windows 2000 Advanced Server = win2000advserv
Windows XP Home Edition = winxphome
Windows XP Professional = winxppro
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition = winxppro-64
Windows Server 2003 Web Edition = winnetweb
Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition = winnetstandard
Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition = winnetenterprise
Windows Server 2003 Small Business = winnetbusiness
Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition = winnetstandard-64
Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition = winnetenterprise-64
Windows Vista = winvista
Windows Vista x64 Edition = winvista-64
Windows Longhorn (experimental) = longhorn
 
  

VMware Player 2.0 is here. It includes full Vista support, and you get VMware Tools.
This means that there are bound to be some changes in EasyVMX! too.

This is a work in progress, and it is by no means finished yet.
If you are feeling adventurous, you can try the new EasyVMX! here.

I would very much like to receive reports on how these functions are working for you. Please report back in the forum.

If you expect everything to have completely changed, you are in for a bit of disappointment. That said, here are the new features:

• Windows Vista is no longer "Experimental"
• Default guest OS is Windows Vista
• Sound is autodetected, and will work in Vista
• SVGA is autodetected, and will set the resolution automatically when resizing VMware
• The new enhanced virtual keyboard setting is on by default
• VMware Tools will be upgraded at power on
• Default when turning off a virtual machine is suspend (snapshot)
• Tip: For better performance in Vista virtual machines, use SCSI disks

Planned features are (but not limited to):

• Shared folders
• Wake-On-Lan
• Remote connection (VNC)
• Actions on power on or off

When all the changes are done (and tested), this will become the new EasyVMX!

Today, VMware Workstation 6 was released.

Here are a few of the improvements in the new version:

1. Windows Vista support, 32 and 64 bit version
2. Multiple monitor support, span multiple monitors
3. Full USB 2.0 support
4. Integrated physical to virtual functionality
5. Ability to run virtual machines in the background
6. Virtual machine record and replay

If you are curious, you can read more about the new features here, there are also a few screenshots available.

VMware Workstation 6 is priced at US$189.

Of course, now that VMware Player 2.0 is available, there is still no reason you can't use EasyVMX!.

If you have done some computer security work, I'm sure you have heard of honeypots or honeynets.

A honeypot is a computer dedicated to logging of intrusion attempts. You can actually want to do things to attract bad guys, to see how they are performing the attacks.

Using a virtual machine as a honeypot can be very smart. You don't have to invest in new hardware, and re-deployment of a compromised machine is done in a few seconds.

Here are some useful links if you want to know more about honeypots/honeynets and running them on VMware:

• Monitoring VMware Honeypots
• Honeypotting with VMware - basics
• Building Virutal Honeynets using VMware
• Virtual Honeynets
• The Honeynet Project

VMware can virtualize DOS (MS-DOS, PC-DOS, FreeDos etc), and it will let you run all those abandoned old games. Or even Windows 3.11!

Unfortunately, if you search the Internet, you will find a lot of people having a hard time getting this to work.

The reason is that most versions of DOS does not idle the CPU when they are idle.

So, to get the optimal performance from your virtuallized DOS, follow the instructions in this article from vmware.com.

Get ready to step up to VMware Player 2.0.

The new player has support for USB 2.0, experimental support for two virtual CPUs, Vista (both as a host and a guest) and it now has full shared folders.

Check out the release notes for more information.