VMWare 5.5 Beta Available

I received an email today stating that VMWare Workstation 5.5 Beta is available. I am using Workstation 5 on Windows Server 2003 x86 Edition to support my Network Security Operations class. When students use SSH to connect to the class server, they are logging in to a FreeBSD server running in VMWare. (I also dual-boot the server with FreeBSD 6.0-BETAx using the amd64 port.

The key advances appear to be the following:

• Support for 64-bit guest operating systems


• Experimental support for 2-way Virtual SMP


• New support for select host and guest operating systems and hardware - 32 and 64 bit

I am excited to see support for SMP (even if only for 2 processors) appear in a Workstation product. We are going to see more multi-core systems appearing in everyday desktops (even though most "normal" users should be using thin clients). :) 64-bit support is also welcome as that architecture moves out of the server world and onto developer desktops.