VMware, Inc. announced today the release of its industry-leading desktop virtualization product, VMware Workstation 6.0. The product operates on top of a wide range of host operating systems that include various Linux distributions and Windows versions. And it offers an even wider range of guest operating system support. Operating system support, both host and guest, now includes Microsoft Windows Vista which wi VMware, Inc. announced today the release of its industry-leading desktop virtualization product, VMware Workstation 6.0. The product operates on top of a wide range of host operating systems that include various Linux distributions and Windows versions. And it offers an even wider range of guest operating system support. Operating system support, both host and guest, now includes Microsoft Windows Vista which will help facilitate re-hosting of legacy systems, enable upgrade and migration projects with minimal end-user disruption and simplify Windows Vista evaluations.The latest version also adds industry first support for multiple display monitors. Users can configure one virtual machine to span multiple monitors or multiple virtual machines to each display on separate monitors to help enhance desktop productivity. And with added USB 2.0 support, users can take advantage of high-performance peripherals such as Apple iPods and fast storage devices.VMware Workstation, introduced almost 8 years ago, continues to be one of the most advanced desktop virtualization products for industry-standard PCs. The product includes full 64-bit support, an industry first support for up to 10 network interface cards and experimental support for two-way Virtual SMP for enhanced workloads. “This feature-packed release of VMware Workstation demonstrates our commitment to delivering cutting-edge products that help enable users to maximize the benefit of virtualization on the desktop,” said Dan Chu, vice president of emerging products and markets at VMware. “VMware Workstation 6 raises the bar significantly for desktop virtualization-it is a must-have product and the only choice for serious desktop virtualization users.” The aim in all the upgrades is to improve usability of a virtual workstation, said James Phillips, senior director of software lifecycle solutions at VMware. “You want to make sure the virtual desktop experience is consistent with a non-virtual desktop experience,” Phillips said. Other new features found in Workstation 6 to help achieve that goal include: ACE authoring capabilities: As a companion to VMware Workstation 6, VMware now offers a VMware ACE Option Pack, which enables VMware Workstation 6 users to create secure, centrally manageable virtual machines. Mobility is one of the primary benefits of this Option Pack, as it allows users to securely transport virtual machines on portable media devices such as USB memory sticks. Integrated Physical-to-Virtual (P2V) functionality: Users can create a virtual machine in minutes by “cloning” an existing physical computer. Integrated virtual debugger: Users can deploy, run and debug programs inside a virtual machine directly from their preferred integrated development environments (IDEs), accelerating debugging with this industry-first integration with Eclipse and Microsoft Visual Studio. Background virtual machine execution: Users can run virtual machines in the background without the VMware Workstation user interface for an uncluttered user experience. Automation APIs: Users can write scripts and programs that automate and help quicken virtual machine testing with support for VIX API 2.0. Continuous virtual machine record and replay (experimental): Users can record the execution of a virtual machine, including all inputs, outputs and decisions made along the way. On demand, the user can go “back in time” to the start of the recording and replay execution, guaranteeing that the virtual machine will perform exactly the same operations every time and ensuring bugs can be reproduced and resolved. Virtual Machine Interface (VMI) support (experimental): VMware Workstation 6 is the first virtualization platform to allow execution of paravirtualized guest operating systems that implement the VMI interface.VMware Workstation 6 for Windows or Linux has a list price of $189 and is available for download today, here. Software Development