For reasons I have yet to disclose on this blog I'm needing to run two Windows applications (this and this) regularily on an Intel-based PC.

After a week, though I just couldn't stand using Windows. Call me arrogant, but it annoys me to no end using it.

To ease the pain, I've decied to pop in a second HD and install my new favourite flavour of Linux, use VMWare to run said Apps and do everything else (browsing, email, Office and XML editing) in a more sane environment.

And I must say, vmware is a rock-solid and impressive piece of software. I could even emerge it from Gentoo's portage system. I run the two Windows apps fullscreen within the vmware window, essentially using the virtual Windows 2000 installation as a non-KDE-conform Linux application ;-) and after three days of real day-to-day work with this constellation I'm happy to report that it works just great.

Currently I'm still running the 30-Day trial, but I know I'm gonna buy it. I must say, though, that I find US$ 189 a bit steep for my use. I can understand, that i.e. for developers using it to test their code on multiple operating systems on one box it's neglible and well worth it. But for someone who just wants to run a couple of Windows apps on Linux it essentially doubles the price considering the cost of your choice of Windows.

I suggest that vmware produce a 'light' version of vmware workstation that only runs under linux and supports only one virtual machine. But somehow I doubt they'll do it within the next 25 days... sigh...