VMWare Revs Desktop Software Now Vista-Ready

VMware this week introduced a new version of its desktop virtualization software, most notably adding support for Windows Vista machines.

VMWare Workstation 6 also also includes support for multiple monitors and USB 2.0 devices, improvements that ease how admins can work with the software.

VMWare continues to lead the way with its standalone virtualiation product, though Microsoft is chasing--albeit belatedly (link to the MS VM story to come today). The addition of Windows 64-bit Vista support in VMware Workstation should be useful for enterprises that are moving rapidly to deploy the new operating system. VMware workstation supports Windows, Linux, NetWare, Solaris x86 and FreeBSD.Other new features in VMware Workstation 6 include ACE-authoring capabilities, integrated physical-to-virtual functionality for cloning physical desktops, an integrated virtual debugger, background virtual machine execution and automation APIs.

In addition, VMWare said it has added support for cross-platform paravirtualization with the open-interface standard paravirt-ops to VMWare Workstation 6.0. Paravirtualized Linux operating systems are modified OSs specifically optimized to run in a virtual environment. IBM, Red Hat, VMWare and Xensure helped build paravirt-ops in an open process; it was included in the 2.6.20 version of the Linux kernel.

Pricing for VMware Workstation 6 for both Windows and Linux starts at $189. It is available at www.vmware.com/products/ws/.