HOW TO: Install the free VMware Server beta
The ability to use virtual machines for testing or development has been available to Linux users for
quite some time in the form of the commercial VMware Workstation, Xen, Usermode Linux, and other virtualization software. Recently, VMware released a beta of its VMware Server product, which is a freely available, albeit slimmed-down, version of its commercial server offerings (GSX and ESX server).
Using VMware Server is ideal for testing or remote access to systems that you may or may not need a GUI for. It’s also ideal for running several different operating systems, or Linux variants, on a single piece of beefy hardware. Although it is still in beta, it’s quite useable. The only caveat is, if you are currently using Workstation, both it and the VMware Server product cannot co-exist on the same machine. Install the free VMware Server beta