Friday, September 01, 2006

Christmas for OS junkies

With free VMWare player it's possible to test your Java and web applications in almost any OS.

Here you can download different Linux OS distributions pre-configured with different software, such as CRM, firewall, web browsers, free web/email/collaboration servers, SSL VPN, security tools:
http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/directory/cat/51/


My favorite is Linux OS configured with several web browsers, which makes it possible to see how web (Domino) applications look like in Linux's browsers:
http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/directory/browserapp.html

I've heard (blink blink ;)) that there is even a way to run Mac OS X in VMWare in Windows. If it was true, that would be a great way to test how web (or Java) applications work in Mac OS.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

this method wouldn't somehow involve using a disk image of a Mac OSX install disk, now would it? (seriously, though -- this could be very useful to my dept. We have a graphics department using macs that we are always having problems troubleshooting on because we have to physically go to their floor in order to do anything).

Andrei Kouvchinnikov said...

According to reliable sources ;) the OSX VMWare image works, but is rather slow. And there are some problems with network. Works only on Intel, not on AMD.
I would say that if you plan to use OSX for more than 4 hours a week, it's cheaper and much more reliable to buy a used Mac.