VMware Workstation 7 Released

Just under three weeks ago, we posted that VMware had launched a release candidate to the general public for final testing, and it sure didn’t take too long before the final version was to hit the market. It’s available right now, and as a minor surprise, the retail value is $10 less than the previous version, making it $189 USD. For users of Workstation 5.x and 6.x, the upgrade fee is $99. If a 6.5 license was purchased within the previous 30 days, you qualify for a free upgrade.

As the final version is available, so are the release notes, so we can finally see all of what’s new or updated. As far as supported operating systems are concerned, supported hosts include Windows 7 (not Vista), Ubuntu 9.04, RHEL 5.3, OpenSUSE 11.x, Mandriva 2009 and SUSE Linux Enterprise 11.x. Guest support is available for those, and Windows 2008 R2 SP2, Vista SP2, Debian 5, CentOS 5.3 and Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.3.

Of all of the brand-new features, Windows 7 support is going to be the most paid attention to on the desktop side, especially given the fact that Workstation 7 also brings updated graphics capabilities to the table. Yes, that includes full Aero Glass support. In addition, Workstation 7 has the ability to completely override Windows 7’s Windows XP mode, which opens up important features such as 3D, support for additional processors and more RAM, along with improved file transfers.

For Windows guests, 3D support has been improved as mentioned, with added capabilities such as OpenGL 2.1 and Shader Model 3. From personal tests over the past few weeks, I’m pleased overall with the upgrades. I don’t find performance in general to be that much improved (although it could be), but I do find that 3D applications and games look a lot better, and have fewer glitches (originally discussed here). Applications such as 3DMark may even run, but that would be for no other reason than curiosity.

One feature that’s sure to please anyone who’s wanted to increase their virtual disk size in the past is the “Expand Virtual Disks” feature from within Workstation itself. You simply target the .vmdk you want to enlarge, then choose the option to expand, and put in the new value. It’s just that simple. Unfortunately, reducing the size of the virtual disks will require the command-line, unless you download a third-party tool. For Linux users, a new Fuse mounting feature has also been added, which allows you to mount virtual disks as a read-only hard drive in the OS.

As has been already known since the release candidate, Workstation 7 now allows up to 4 cores to be dedicated to a given VM, up from 2 in previous versions. Whether or not this is 4 literal cores, or 4 threads (which would be important on Core i with HyperThreading), I’m unsure, as I haven’t tested it out yet. Along with that support though comes the ability to dedicate up to 32GB of RAM to individual virtual machines. I’ll assume that few desktop users will be taking advantage of that capability anytime soon.

Three other features catch my eye from the list. As a Linux user, I appreciate the improvements made to the audio system, which now uses ALSA directly, meaning there’s no need for a second audio card in the machine. Another is virtual printing, which allows you to print to a real printer from within your guest OS, without the need to worry about mapping them through the network. Lastly, rather than sell Linux and Windows licenses separately as the company has in the past, going forward, one serial code will work for both versions, which is an “about time” move as far as I’m concerned.

As a whole, I’m enjoying Workstation 7 quite a bit, and there’s plenty here to warrant the major version bump. You can expect a more thorough look from us at the latest version and Workstation in general within the next month.