On Fri, Nov 09, 2007 at 08:57:12AM -0500, McGuffey, David C. wrote: > The configuration of VMware Workstation 6.0.2 build-59824 for > Linux for this running kernel completed successfully. > > I'm not comfortable using an untrusted script out of the Czech Republic > for anything other than a toy machine. It is fine for testing > virtualization in a lab, but at this point, not good for say doing my > taxes with TurboTax in WinXP on a home machine. If the script was signed > or provided an md5 hash, and VMware indicated that this was an > "approved" approach, then I might feel better. But that is not the > case. > > Anyone know the "pedigree" and quality of this any-any script? > > I'm a bit dismayed that VMware is not playing a more active role in > making the scripts necessary to get their product to run on Fedora. > Afterall Fedora eventually rolls over into a Red Hat server offering. > The issue is more the rate at which Fedora changes the kernel, the Vmware installation process requires (as you discvered) a build against the kernel sources. Vmware make their code work with the latest kernels being used in various distributions at the time the Vmware release is done. Some distributions keep the same kernel throughout their life (e.g. typically server/commercial distributions) for just this reason, things like Vmware are supported only against certain kernel versions. Other distributions (like Fedora) stay on the 'bleeding edge' and update the kernel frequently, Vmware releases don't keep up with these changes. If you want a 'safe' place to be for sensitive software to run you want to use a more stable distribution than Fedora. -- Chris Green
