VMWare server 1.0 final release
I’ve been keeping an install of Vmware virtual Server through their beta and Release Candidate phase and have seen several places that they’ve released the 1.0 version today. This release is free (as in no charge.) Although support is available….
Support for VMware server runs $350 USD for a one-year subscription per two processors for Gold level, and $450 USD for Platinum level. Businesses can also purchase VMware VirtualCenter for $600 USD per two processors.
The ESX server from Vmware is their “next step up” and installs on bare metal (no OS required for the host.) It is NOT free though. From my brief experience with the VMWare server, I’m really impressed. I’ve used a number of open-source virtualizers and can see VMWare server with an advantage over them in many categories.
Also, of note, they do apparently use SOME open source components the source of which is available for download. It doesn’t look like much (scsi disk driver and ?pixops?), but it’s good to see them doing what they should and having it for download.
Anyway, good to see the final release. During the beta and release candidate phase there were serial numbers that were used to “expire” the free product to make sure you had the most current version available. I don’t know if they’ll just use the serial numbers now for the registration, but it is free and is not scheduled to expire.
You might be interested in some of my previous VMware related posts…. vmplayer VMX builder, ubuntu server 606 plus vmware server and other vmware server notes, vmware-server, VMPlayer on Mandriva 2006 finally. These give a summary of my experiences with both vmplayer and vmware server through the pre-release process. In some cases, I’ve done simple tests (boot iso time to boot) timing the virtual machine boot process.