Whats New
The forefront of virtualization products VMware has just released their newest version of VMware Workstation. Run the most demanding applications in a virtual machine with up to 8 virtual processors or up to 8 virtual cores, 2 TB virtual disks and up to 64 GB of memory per virtual machine, this of course depending on your Host Machines Hardware requirements withstanding. VMware Workstation 8 now offers support for USB 3.0 pass thru emulation, improved NAT performance, and support for HD Audio. For further reading on VMware Workstation 8 please go to what’s new page of VMware Workstation 8. As mentioned in some of my previous articles, even through this virtualization product were more or less designed for the Enterprise Consumer many of IT Hobbyist or Home Enthusiast have used this product for their own personal ends with great results.
System Requirements
Host Operating Systems – Microsoft Windows (Minimum Windows XP SP2 32/64 bit or Higher) and Linux (Ubuntu 8.04 -11.04, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.5 – 6.1, Oracle Linux 5.0 – 6.1 or eqiuvilant)
Hardware – 64bit-x86 based CPU’s
Pricing
Like VMware Workstation 7 before it, VMware Workstation 8 has a 30 Day Full Trial Evaluation period to use the virtualization product for free without limits to see if the product meets your needs. If you choose to buy after the evaluation period the cost is currently $199.00 and as of this writing it is only available through the VMware Website Store (There is however a coupon that can be used till the end of September that will take $45.00 of the full purchase price, this does not include upgrade pricing). For those who own a current license of either VMware Workstation 6 or 7 you can purchase the upgrade license for $99.00 (You must have a registered license key with VMware of the previous version to receive the upgrade price on file with VMware).
Windows 8 Developers Preview Note
VMware Workstation 8 supports the newly released Windows 8 Developers Preview from Microsoft as a Guest Operating System (VMware Workstation 7.x and below along with VMware Player 3.x and below do not support the Windows 8 Developers Preview).
