<chapter>
<title>Introducing VMware</title>

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<artheader>
   <title>Introducing VMware</title>
   <author>
      <firstname>Steven</firstname>
      <surname>Edwards</surname>
      <affiliation>
        <address>
          <email>Steven_Ed4153@yahoo.com</email>
        </address>
      </affiliation>
   </author>
</artheader>
-->

<abstract>
<para>
Explains what VMware is and a general idea of how virtual computing works.
</para>
</abstract>

<sect2>
<title>Introducing Virtual Computing</title>
<para>
A Virtual Machine is a software program much like an emulator that provides a virtual hardware platform. Software instructions that would be run on hardware are caught buy the virtual environment and depending on the instruction are either run on the native CPU or emulated in software. Virtual Computing allows for much fast operation then standard emulation as a result of the ability to run the majority of the instructions on the Native CPU. This process allows you to run a virtual computer in software on your computer. The performance of the software on a virtual computer will be only slightly slower than on real hardware. Overhead can still be a problem for disk IO and CPU instructions that must be emulated but in general it is much faster then a total emulation system.
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>You can try out a completely different operating system without tinkering with your real system.</listitem>
<listitem>You can run potentially unstable software without the fear of damaging your real system.</listitem>
<listitem>For operating systems developers, it provides a way to debug the system without constant reboots.</listitem>
<listitem>The performace is much faster then a true emulator such as bochs.</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</sect2>

<sect2>
<title>Introducing VMware <ulink url="http://www.vmware.com/">http://www.vmware.com</ulink></title>
<para>
VMware is a popular commercial virtual machine for the X86 CPU family. It can run on WindowsNT, 2K, XP and Linux/FreeBSD. It also provides IO port, BIOS emulation, networking and sound support. VMware can run a number of different "guest" operating systems including *DOS, Windows 9x/NT/2K/XP, ReactOS, Free Unices (*BSD, Linux) as well as many others. VMware is free for 30 days, after that you must purchase a license from their website.
</para>
</sect2>

<sect2>
<title>Other Virtual Machines</title>
<para>
There are other Virtual Machines you may want to try out with ReactOS. Be warned that only the X86 CPU is supported at the time of this writing:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><ulink url="http://www.plex86.org/">Plex86</ulink>: Plex86 by Kevin Lawton for MandrakeSoft. At the time of this writing, Plex86 only runs on Linux.</listitem>
<listitem><ulink url="http://www.maconlinux.org/">Mac on Linux for PPC</ulink>: Mac on Linux is a Virtual Machine for the PowerPC platform allowing you to run the MacOS or LinuxPPC in a Virtual Machine under Linux for PPC. ReactOS at the time of this writing does not support the PowerPC but you are more the welcome to try. =)</listitem>
<listitem><ulink url="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx">Virtual PC</ulink>: Virtual PC is Virtual Machine software made by Microsoft that runs on Windows and Mac OS X.</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</sect2>

</chapter>
