2006-08-29 #2

I Like Virtual Systems

Installed Windows XP into a VMWare session. It does the IE-based SSL VPN trick I need in order to connect to the office. With the addition of cygwin and eXceed, it is almost usable (at least, almost as usable as my regular laptop is).

Also installed Solaris 10 multiple times. There has to be a better way to re-ip and re-name a system than sys-unconfig which seems to be a very blunt tool. Working my way through the documentation, it appears that the information I need is very diversely scattered. I am wondering if it would be worth while to order hardcopy documentation, since that is more usable in a flip-and-scan mode than PDF files are.

One interesting note is that even though the virtual-CDROM drive is advertised as a CDROM drive, it can read DVD .iso files. Makes installing the software somewhat easier.

Have not yet figured out how to install the VMWare Tools into Linux or Solaris.

Overall this VMWare Server is permitting rapid testing and implementing of new ideas faster than fiddling with real hardware would, especially since it is all doable remotely -- I think the only time I have had to physically go to the box in question is to load the Windows XP disk and then unload it post-installation.