[CentOS] OT: Why VM?

[Les Mikesell]

On 5/30/11 9:40 AM, James B. Byrne wrote:
> Thank you all for a most enlightening discussion.  I had not
> considered using multiple VMs running on a central host to emulate
> desktop workstations.  This application may be of considerable
> benefit to us as we are constrained by our federal government to use
> a Java based web app written so that it can only use the MicroSoft
> Java VM, since discontinued.

For that scenario - or others where you need to run some oddball program under a 
different OS, you would also have the option of running the VM on the user's 
desktop or laptop.  VMware player or virtualbox might be the best way to run 
them where you want the display to be tied to the host.  You lose some of the 
advantages of central management but you can still roll them out and fix 
anything with a fresh copy of a master image.  Also note the advantage for 
software developers to have multiple OS versions easily available for testing 
under different platforms to avoid re-creating this locked-in situation.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com