On Tuesday, 03-12-2024 at 21:04 jeremy ardley wrote:
>
>
> On 3/12/24 16:49, George at Clug wrote:
> > I would also recommend the free version of VMware Workstation. While not
> > FOSS, it is an excellent product, while it is made available for
> > personal use
>
>
> No it's not! VMware Workstation is a buggy as hell on Windows and nearly
> unusable on Debian.
>
> I know. I've just spent a year in a virtualisation course using VMWare
> Workstation to virtualise many different hosts and networks and
> applications.
>
> On a Windows Host it will randomly forget to cut and paste to a VM. At
> times it will go to 100% CPU and wedge. Sometimes the only solution is
> to completely reboot the Windows host.
>
> With VMWare workstation on Windows, the course instruction is "Save
> Early, Save Often"
>
> They don't even attempt to do coursework on Linux for a very good reason.
I have used VMware Workstation on Windows PCs for about 15 years, and VMware
Player.
I have used VMware Workstation on Linux for about 5 years. And still do, but
only for the better graphics. I mostly use KVM now, via Virt-Manager.
I first learnt how to do Live Migration using two virtualised ESXi hypervisors
using VMware Workstation on Windows 7. I now use Virt-Manager and KVM to
demonstrate Live Migration.
I have enjoyed virtualising Windows 95 through to Windows 10 on VMware
Workstation just for the fun.
Never have I had any issues. Worked perfectly for me.
Your experience might be different (obviously from your comments).
I have also use Virtual Box, and quite like it too.
I have never implemented GPU passthrough. Not even sure how to pass a GPU
through.
>
> For my personal virtualisation tasks I use QEMU/KVM and the debian gui
> tools.
I agree, I particularly like using Virt-Manager for QEMU/KVM. Simple to use and
I don't need to install a management "endpoint" on remote KVM servers to manage
them.
> They take a bit of learning but are far more reliable than VMWare.
I certainly have found KVM and Virt-Manager to be reliable and stable for Linux
servers. Never had any issues (other than of my own making ; )
Using Virt-Manager really makes things easy. I don't bother doing command line
KVM unless manually moving/copying VMs.
>
> As an aside, VMWare Workstation Pro is now free because Broadcom has
> upped the license fee on ESXi systems and are facing a mammoth exodus of
> customers to other vendors. Free software is a last ditch effort to
> increase the user base.
I was disappointed when Broadcom took over VMware. I had not heard about the
ESXi licence fees increasing, sad. I had thought that Broadcom had ended ESXi,
it is good to know at least it is still alive, but I am concerned that maybe
they are not funding development, which might be why you have found it has
become unstable? I do not use VMware Workstation very much over the past four
year. No need to as KVM works great.
I had heard that Red Hat may stop supporting Spice in KVM leaving VNC as the
alternative? Have you heard about this? I hope it is not going to happen,
Spice has been great for video and sound in VMs. Spice with OpenGL enabled is
how I test Cinnamon in VMs without software rendering.
https://docs.redhat.com/en/documentation/red_hat_enterprise_linux/9/html/considerations_in_adopting_rhel_9/assembly_virtualization_considerations-in-adopting-rhel-9
SPICE has become unsupported
George.
>
>
