Virtualize A Desktop in 45 Minutes Or Less

While much of the technology industry has focused on virtualization on big iron, or in racks, or in big storage machines, virtualizing the desktop PC has never been easier and has never provided greater options for the small or mid-market deployment. Microsoft still produces the dominant operating systems in the PC space with Windows XP and Windows Vista, but Linux and Apple's Mac OS are both picking up market share and interest.

Virtualizing a Windows desktop is a painless and inexpensive way for a reseller or solution provider to deliver options to the customer. There are several options in the industry now for virtualizing desktops to allow a PC to run more than one operating system at the same time: Parallels Inc., of Renton, Wash., makes virtualization software that became popular first on the Mac platform for running both Windows and Mac OS X on the same device. Open source alternatives for virtualization are available, including KVM and Xen.

CMP Channel Test Center recently downloaded evaluation copies of VMWare's Workstation 6 software, which provides desktop virtualization capabilities. Less than a year old, Workstation 6 is available to install on a Windows PC to run Linux, or on a Linux PC to run Windows. VMWare provides a free, 30-day evaluation version of the software. List price on a single license is $189, a Windows 5 Pack is $899 and a 10 Pack is listed at $1,699. Linux single licenses are also $189.

Once you have a copy of Workstation 6 in hand, here is what you need to do to virtualize a desktop:

First, make sure the hard drive has enough space for a partition that can hold and install both Workstation 6 and the Linux operating system. A version of Fedora 8, for example, can take up more than 5 GB of a hard drive's footprint;

Second, install Workstation 6 using the friendly wizards that VMWare has built into the installer. This should take less than five minutes on a system running a dual-core PC processor. CMP Channel Test Center installed Workstation 6 on a Lenovo ThinkCentre PC with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 chip and Windows Vista Business, and it took four and a half minutes;

Third, using the Workstation 6 console, which is user friendly like the installation wizard, push a button that says "New Virtual Machine." A "New Virtual Machine Wizard" pops up and guides through the process of creating a hard drive partition and virtual machine;

Fourth, install a Linux disk into the optical drive (Test Center did this with Fedora 7, Fedora 8 and Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon distributions of Linux), and follow the wizard's instructions to install the OS onto the hard drive partition via the VM. Depending on which operating system you choose, and the PC's hardware performance, it could take between 20 and 30 minutes for the operating system to install.

Fifth, set up the OS on the virtual machine as you would an OS installed on any other PC, by setting administrative controls, permissions, themes and defaults.

And there you have it.

From within the Workstation 6 console, you can launch Ubuntu or Fedora (or another Linux OS) and run productivity apps, Firefox Web browser, integrate with a network printer or whatever use a Linux PC lets you do. And you can do it within a Windows PC.

Now that you've virtualized the PC, installed a Linux OS onto a Windows box via the VM, and can run two operating platforms at the same time, you, as the solution provider, will have a few questions. Here are a couple, along with a couple of answers:

Where is the value-add for the customer? If it's just for evaluation purposes (remember, VMWare provides 30-day free evaluation licenses for Workstation 6 and Ubuntu and Fedora are free, for example), it costs the customer nothing for licenses or additional technology and they have the chance to determine whether installing Linux systems into the work environment might make sense or provide return on investment. Or they could determine that Windows still works best, and keep it that way.

How does a solution provider make any money by doing this? VMWare has a channel program for VARs who resell their software. Beyond that, the solution provider can offer desktop virtualization as a continuing service to help a customer evaluate platforms, to provide a means of slow migration from one desktop platform to another, or to simply solve a business problem. Also, there are no licensing restrictions preventing a reseller from charging whatever fee the market will allow for providing a Linux OS.

Virtualization isn't just restricted to Windows on Linux, or Linux on Windows. Apple, which has been growing market share steadily over the past three years, provides virtualization capabilities in the new "Leopard" version of its Mac OS X that enables virtual deployment of Windows Vista in a Mac environment. As greater portions of the market become curious or desirous to virtualize their PCs, using a VMWare Workstation 6 or other solutions can provide a solution provider a quick and easy chance to convert that opportunity and deliver value.