VMware releases VMware Player 2.5 along with new versions of Workstation, Ace and Server
September 24th, 2008 | 
Author: Several web sites have already reported the new releases of VMware Workstation 6.5, VMware Ace 2.5, and VMware Server 2.0, but I have not seen any mention of the new VMware Player 2.5. According to the VMware Player 2.5 Release Notes the latest version is dated 09.23.08 and is now available for download.
Some exciting new features of the latest version are the support for 3-D graphics, a GUI based Linux installer, faster performance for transferring files between guests and host as well as seamless windows on the host desktop (the popular Unity feature already in Fusion and the new Workstation version).
VMware Player is a free download from VMware that lets you run virtual machines (VM) on your desktop. Unlike Workstation, Player does not have the ability to create a new VM. However, using the online easyVMX virtual machine creator lets you work around this limitation.
The following is taken from the “What’s New” section of the previously mentioned Player Release Notes page:
New Support for 32-Bit and 64-Bit Operating Systems
This release provides experimental support for the following operating systems:
- 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows Preinstallation environment (all versions) as a guest operating system
- 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows Recovery environment as a guest operating system
- 32-bit and 64-bit Ubuntu LTS 8.04.1 as a guest operating system
This release provides full support for the following operating systems in addition to those operating systems supported
in previous releases:
- 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows 2008 Standard Server, Data
Center, Enterprise, and Small Business Server as guest operating
systems without Hyper-V - 32-bit and 64-bit Asianux 3 as a guest operating system
- 32-bit and 64-bit CentOS 5.0-5.2 as host and guest operating systems
- 32-bit and 64-bit Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.0-5.2 as host and guest operating systems
- 32-bit and 64-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, Update 7
(Workstation, Enterprise Server, and Advanced Server) as host and guest
operating systems - 32-bit and 64-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1 and 5.2 (Advanced
Platform, Desktop, and Server) as host and guest operating systems - 32-bit and 64-bit SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 and 10 SP1 and SP2 as host and guest operating systems
- 32-bit SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP2 as a guest operating system
- 32-bit and 64-bit Mandriva Linux 2008 as a guest operating system
- 32-bit and 64-bit Ubuntu LTS 8.04 as host and guest operating systems
- 32-bit and 64-bit Solaris 10 Operating System for x86 Platforms, 10 5/08 (Update 5), as a guest operating system
Major New Features
- Unity view — Integrate your favorite guest
applications with your host. Open the application window, enter Unity
view, and the VMware Player window is automatically minimized. The
guest application windows look just like host application windows, but
with color-coded borders. You can access the virtual machine’s Start
menu (for Windows virtual machines) or Applications menu (for Linux
virtual machines) by placing the mouse pointer over the host’s Start or
Applications menu, or by using a key combination. - Installer bundle for Linux hosts — Installing
VMware Player on Linux hosts just got a lot easier. The new bundle
format provides a graphical UI wizard for most Linux operating systems.
With a few mouse clicks, VMware Player is installed. For users who want
a custom installation, a command-line interface provides complete
control. - Accelerated 3-D graphics on Windows XP guests — VMware Player 2.5 virtual machines now work with applications
that use DirectX 9 accelerated graphics with shaders up through Shader Model 2.0 on Windows XP guests. Hosts can be running
Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Linux.
Usability Enhancements
- Full screen mode — While in full screen mode, you can now switch from one powered-on virtual machine to another.
- Suspend and exit — Both Windows and Linux hosts now support suspending the virtual machine when exiting.
- Change preferences — Set preferences, such as how devices are displayed in VMware Player.
- Expanded in-product help system — When you choose Help > Help Topics, or click a Help button in a dialog box,
you have access to twice as much content as was provided in VMware Player 2.0.
Performance Improvements
- Folder sharing and dragging, dropping, copying, and pasting text and files — Transferring files between
virtual machines or between host and guests using these features is up to 25 percent faster. - Memory allocation — Change the amount of memory allocated to the virtual machine.
New Platform Capabilities
- (Experimental) Support for smart cards in virtual machines — You can plug a smart card reader into a host
and insert your smart card to authenticate yourself on your host or on a guest. Smart cards can be shared between the host and
guests or between guests. - Text copy and paste enhancements — On Windows guests, you can copy and paste text in rich text format,
and copy up to 4MB of text. (On Linux guests, the old limitations still apply. You can copy and paste up to 64K of plain text.)
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Posted in player, vmware, vmware server, workstation | 
Tags: virtualization, vmware, vmware server, vmwareace, vmwareplayer, vmwareworkstation
