Ever wanted to try a new operating system without removing your old one? Ever thought about a Dual or even Multi-boot setup but didn’t want to hassle with partitioning your hard drive and dealing with lengthy install procedures? Well here is your answer. Virtualization software called VMWare Player lets you run an operating system within your existing one. It’s a computer inside a computer and it really is that simple. Read on to learn more about how it works. 

Installation took only 5 minutes. Be sure to uncheck “Enable Google Searchbar”. After installing, Windows Defender popped up to warn me about an LSP Winsock change and a change in Services. Its safe to allow them both since VMWare will need access. If you open your Device manager, you’ll notice VMWare installed virtual Ethernet Controllers so your virtual machines can access the net.

I first opened up VMWare and it prompted me for a virtual machine configuration file (.vmx). It defaults to My Documents to find one. I did not have one yet, so I clicked Cancel. VMWare then closed itself. I surfed over to VMWare’s website to find some Virtual Machines.

On the VMWare Player page, there is a link for the “Virtual Appliances Library” that will send you to the Virtual Machine Technology Network webpage. There you can download various applications and Operating Systems, mostly Linux and some firewall programs, which have been specially made for virtualization. Because I am somewhat familiar with it already, I downloaded Ubuntu 5.10, the latest version as of this writing. The entire library is frequently updated, so you can always find the latest version of your virtual app.

Ubuntu is a massive download, but over my cable connection, I grabbed all 517MB in about 25 minutes. Once downloaded, unzip the files into your “My Virtual Machines” folder and load the .vmx file in VMWare. Then you are ready for action.

The top edge of the VMWare player has buttons labeled CDROM, Floppy, Ethernet and Audio, which you can use to control access within your virtual machine. So after clicking CDROM, my Ubuntu installation would load up any CDs I put into my drive, instead of Windows. This way you can easily work in whichever operating system you like, without worrying about always switching back and forth for drives and sounds.

I loaded Ubuntu-5.10.vmx and I quickly recognized the Ubuntu loading screens. And in no time I saw the Ubuntu desktop running in a window on my Windows XP desktop. Very cool. I poked around Ubuntu and found that it ran exactly like the full installation I have on another computer. I was online instantly, downloading Ubuntu updates. The virtual OS will install the updates within itself, and even restart within its window to apply the changes. I used various applications just like any other OS, such as OpenOffice, Firefox, The GIMP, Evolution Mail, etc. After grabbing some codecs online, I could stream Internet radio and listen to music through the virtual machine.

Note for anyone who has trouble playing a CD. I did some research and found that Ubuntu’s CD Player app will not produce any audio if you don’t have an audio cable connecting your CDROM to your sound card. Instead use XMMS, and the CD will play.

VMWare will use a hefty amount of system RAM, which is understandable because your computer is running two operating systems at once. Running Ubuntu along with Windows XP used up about 625MB of RAM. Closing Ubuntu showed that it had been using about 150MB of RAM. So be sure you have at least 1GB of ram (which XP users should already) if you want to give VMWare a spin. Anything less will slowdown the whole operation.  Surprisingly CPU usage is low, only rising if you are working on something intensely in either OS. Otherwise it only takes a couple percentage points to idle the second OS.

So what is VMWare Player? It is the ultimate way to “try before you buy” so to speak, though Linux is mostly free. I wish I could have familiarized myself with Ubuntu via virtualization before taking the time to install it fully. I’m sure the Linux transition would have been far easier. For anyone thinking about Linux, this is a fantastic way to work in the Linux environment without leaving the comfort of Windows. You can download the 28MB VMWare Player here:  http://www.vmware.com/products/player/