VMWare has been the number one virtualization vendor. Recently they have solidified their leadership position by making their VMWare Server product free of charge. So now you can run VMWare on Linux and Windows platform for free.
Virtualization is a technology that allows you to run multiple operating systems on the same hardware simultaneously. It is great if you use applications that run on different OS platforms or you are a software developer who needs to test things on different environment. To me, I like the stability and the open source nature of Linux, while at the same time my work demands that I run a handful of Microsoft applications. I installed a CentOS Linux on my desktop PC and then run my existing Windows on top of Linux through VMWare.
VMWare installation is very smooth. Actually I hardly feel any difference running it as a “virtual” PC (the actual name “virtual PC” is the competing product from Microsoft). Initially the display and keyboard/mouse response is a little slow. However after installed a VMWare toolset, that problem melts away. VMWare even provides a free tool to convert my existing Windows PC into a “virtual machine” – essentially a set of files that can be transported into Linux.
Now I can run both Linux and Windows simultaneously. Switching between the Linux world and Windows world is just a couple of key strokes or mouse clicks away, depending on how you setup the Linux Windows and the Windows’ Window. I highly recommend it.