Quoting from the VMware official announcement:
VMware, Inc., the global leader in virtual infrastructure software for industry-standard systems, today introduced VMware Server, a free new entry-level hosted virtualization product for Linux and Windows servers. The product is available as a beta download at www.vmware.com/products/server/.
“Virtualization and VMware have become mainstream in the past year, and many customers have deployed thousands of VMware server environments across their enterprises. With VMware Server, we are ensuring that every company interested in, considering or evaluating server virtualization for the first time has access to the industry-leading virtualization technology,” said Diane Greene, VMware President. “VMware Server makes it easy and compelling for companies new to virtualization to take the first step toward enterprise-wide virtual infrastructure.”
VMware Server, the successor to VMware GSX Server, enables users to quickly provision new server capacity by partitioning a physical server into multiple virtual machines, bringing the powerful benefits of virtualization to every server.
VMware Server is feature-packed with the following market-leading capabilities:
- Support for any standard x86 hardware
- Support for a wide variety of Linux and Windows host operating systems, including 64-bit operating systems
- Support for a wide variety of Linux, NetWare, Solaris x86 and Windows guest operating systems, including 64-bit operating systems
- Support for Virtual SMP, enabling a single virtual machine to span multiple physical processors
- Quick and easy, wizard-driven installation similar to any desktop software
- Quick and easy virtual machine creation with a virtual machine wizard
- Virtual machine monitoring and management with an intuitive, user friendly remote console
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Availability
VMware Server beta is available for immediate download at www.vmware.com/products/server/. The product is expected to be generally available later in the first half of 2006. Support and subscription services for VMware Server will be available for purchase upon general availability.