Okay, I'm being noisy today.
I have VMWare Server 1.0.8 installed on my CentOS desktop, and it runs my XP and CentOS guests just fine, though I don't use them much.
I'm considering moving to either VMWare Server 2.0 or switching to KVM instead, mainly because VMWS 1 is now obsolete and also because its limitations on video configurations is really annoying - I have a 22" 1680x1050 LCD monitor, hoping to upgrade sometime in the not-too-distant future to a 23 or 24" display with full HD (1920x1080), but VMWS 1 does not support any wide-screen configurations at all. I tend to use on-screen real estate to maximum benefit, and the 1152x864 maximum useful size I have now is just too small for me, so I'm thinking maybe it's time to upgrade to something newer/better.
I've seen some of the horror stories about problems with VMWare 2.0, which is not at all encouraging, and I've taken a look at the Red Hat Virtualization guides (the 5.4 one that's online in html only) and also a PDF version for 5.2 that I found somewhere, and it _looks_ complicated. (One of the main benefits of VMWare Server that I really liked was that it is fairly easy to use and relatively low maintenance, if it works, and 1.0.8 works just fine, except for the screen issue.) OTOH, the built-in nature of KVM is really appealing, and if it works as well as other features of CentOS/RH/Linux, it would be nice to be able to avoid the separate upgrade and re-build-the-drivers-vmware-config.pl annoyance every time a new kernel comes along. I'm a big fan of well-integrated software, especially in this area (virtualization).
One question I had that overrides most other considerations is how to transfer my existing XP VM over to whichever new underlying system I choose - is that even possible, or do I have to go through all the reinstallation pain yet another time? If I have to go that route, I'll probably opt for kvm and take that plunge so I can do it once and never again (ok, that was not supposed to be funny... :-).
Recommendations?
Thanks, as always.
Mark Hull-Richter Expert CentOS/Linux C/shell Software Developer Registered Linux User #472807 - sign up at http://counter.li.org/