Free Virtual Appliances
No, you’re not going to be able to have your toaster deliver you breakfast via e-mail (though that would be cool, wouldn’t it?)! I’m talking about networking appliances and VMware has created a website that allows you to create an environment with as many virtual devices as your system can handle.
VMware Technology Network Virtual Appliances website is a downloader/tester/dabbler’s delight! You can directly or via bittorrent download predesigned virtual appliances that will work in either the VMware Player or VMware Server, both of which are also available for free!
So, what kind of virtual appliances can you download? Well, here are a few notable examples:
- HowNetWorks - a high-level network analyzer.
- Trellis NAS Bridge - network attached storage (NAS) virtualization for multiple CIFS/SMB and Unix/SSH servers.
- Kid Safe Desktop - stops illicit material from invading your child’s computer by filtering and blocking web content while they surf.
- Grid-Appliance - a plug-and-play solution capable of building virtual computing farms delivering supercomputing powers to end-users on their system.
- Ubuntu - free, open source operating system.
This is just a small list of the appliances that are available to install and run on in your virtual environment.
Over the next little while, I’m going to be looking at setting up a VMware server and I’ll walk you through the process. I’ll also show you some of the cool virtual appliances that I am playing with an hopefully you will get hooked as well.
5 Responses to “Free Virtual Appliances”
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Rob Dunn Says:
September 19th, 2006 at 10:12 amGreat info - VMWare has to be one of the best technologies around. I used a Virtual environment for development so my “tainted” XP system doesn’t affect my testing.
VMWare’s free offering has prompted Microsoft to release their Virtual Server technology for free as well. Gotta love open competition…!
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Tim Fehlman Says:
September 19th, 2006 at 10:21 amI’ve worked with both the VMware and the Microsoft versions. I think it all comes down to the fact that VMware has been doing this type of thing for a lot longer. The Microsoft offering feels very “version 1.0″, if you know what I mean.
But, if you are interested in the Microsoft version of VMware virtual server, feel free to check it out.
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Leonard Says:
September 19th, 2006 at 8:52 pmI’m a big fan of virtual appliances. There has been a lot of interest, in the form of Google searches, for Windows XP virtual appliances - wanted for free of course :). While you cannot legally download a free winxp virtual appliance, you can create your own one and reuse it.
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Tim Fehlman Says:
September 19th, 2006 at 9:12 pmOne of the very first things that I did was create a Windows Vista virtual server with those new Vista keys I got!
I guess that is probably as close as you are going to get to a free Windows virtual appliance. -
The Fieldhouse Says:
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