Virtual Appliances update
October 1st, 2006In a previous post on VMware virtual appliances I wrote about how easy and convenient they are. So it is good news and for good reason that the VMware directory of free virtual appliances has grown. The directory is up to date with recent versions of most (free) operating systems and many applications. They even have a “Voice Mail RSS Feed Generator” :). Personally, I have been mostly using a WinXP virtual appliance - one that I had to create myself using the VMware server (also free, but because of the XP licensing it’s not really “free”).
If you ever want to test an operating system or an application, but you are hesitant to install it on your own computer or server, this is an excellent virtualization option. There are, of course, many torrent downloads available - both good and bad. Other uses of virtual appliances include testing of software, like Windows Vista, IE7 or Microsoft Expression Web - all those beta applications that you really want to try out, but don’t want install on your computer just yet.