Direct Launch, OpenGL 2.1, Bigger VMs Now In VMware Workstation 7.1 and Player 3.1 Public Betas

Almost as if to segue from my recent Virtumania Podcast episode about type 2 hypervisors, VMware has announced the release of the public betas for the latest versions of their popular Workstation and Player desktop products. Touting several new features and performance improvements, VMware Workstation 7.1 and Player 3.1 betas can now be downloaded from their VMware Beta Community pages.

I am downloading my copy as I write this post, but several new features have caught my attention.

• Open GL 2.1 support for Windows 7 and Vista guests
• Improved graphics support enabling high resolution videos in VMs
• Autologin for Windows Guests
• Inclusion of the OVF 1.0 command line tool to convert VMs to .OVF files for exporting to other hypervisors
• 8 way vCPU support in VMs
• up to 2TB virtual disks
• Direct Launch – drag icon to host desktop and seamlessly start an application inside a VM – even after closing VMware Workstation or Player.
• Support for Fedora 12 as a guest OS
• VMware Ace upgraded to version 3.7

Also, I can’t help but notice Known Issues from the Release Notes such as the following:

“Display

• Exiting FIFA 08 game on Windows 7 guests and hosts with Aero enabled, might cause the desktop wallpaper to turn black.
• There are known issues with the ATI Linux driver 10.2. VMware recommends that you use ATI Linux driver 9.11 for the best 3D user experience.”

Looks like I’ve got some new testing to do! (and maybe a new 3D games video to make!)

--> The rest is on :

http://vmetc.com/2010/03/13/direct-launch-opengl-2-1-bigger-vms-now-in-vmware-workstation-7-1-and-player-3-1-public-betas/