VMware

Ok, so if I haven't sold you on VMware by reading my last post, maybe after this post you will know more why I'm such an advocate.

First of all, the company I work for was willing to send me to VMware training this past August. If VMware training won't make you an advocate, not sure what will. Besides that, I really do think they have the most mature product out there. So anyhow, yeah, I went to the VMware v3.5 FastTrack training and a month after the class I took the VCP exam and passed!! WOOT! I think that's the first test I've had to take in like 8 years! I'd have to say that it was a pretty big challenge and if you weren't interested in the product to begin with, it'd be tough to pass the exam. I studied for about 6 hours every week for a month after the class - going over the material from the class and I got 85% on the test. I'd have to say that I definitely think the class and certification has benefited me in my job already - there a bunch of things I was able to fix in our environment because of it.

If you ever take the class and have hopes to become a VCP, I think the best tip I had was to just go over the class manual every night and each night take the mock exam off their website, then copy the answers you get wrong into a document and study them out. They give you 100 tries on the mock exam, I probably took it 10 or 15 times and I think it helped me a lot. I wouldn't take the exam any later than a month after the class so that the material is still fresh. If you have more time than I did, you may want to take the exam only one or two weeks after the class.

I feel really blessed to have such a job that they were willing to train me in times that are a bit tough to even find a job. The class was not cheap either! A couple weeks after my class, I found out that any and all training for the remainder of the year was cut from the budget for our whole division, so a double blessing!

VMware Fusion for the Mac

Lots has happened since last post - probably why I haven't posed in a while eh? (No, I'm not Canadian - not that I don't like Canadians, I know some really nice ones.)

First, I'm still lovin' my Mac! I've learned a bunch of tips and tricks to make it my own and work great for me. I just can't say enough about it, get one - NOW! I was a bit reluctant at first, but I saw the need to run a Windows VM on top of my Mac, so I purchased a copy of VMware Fusion for Mac and am running a copy of Windows XP on my Mac. The only real need I had was to run Quicken. Apparently Intuit decided that it wasn't going to continue development of Quicken past 2007 for the Mac. And I wasn't about to downgrade so that I could run it natively on my Mac. The only other choice was to keep my Windows machine (which had been hacked by some kind of virus running around on our network) or to go virtual. Virtual proved to be the best choice since I can power off the VM as soon as I'm done with it and use it just for Quicken - takes up little space.

One of the coolest things about Fusion is that it can run in a mode called "Unity" which allows applications within the VM to run outside the VM window and appear as of they are running natively. This is a totally bizarre thing but so cool! So when I run Quicken, it looks as if it's running as a normal Mac application with the exception that it does not have the normal Mac title bar and buttons, but rather the Windows ones.

Another great thing that Fusion has going for it is 3D support. One day last week I decided to try this out, I couldn't hardly believe that it would really work that well. I dusted off my copy of Rise of Nations (it's a game for the PC) and inserted the CD. The Autorun menu popped right up and I began installing. During the install there is a part that does a hardware check, it zipped past so fast I hardly even saw it! The installation got done and I launched the game. It loaded faster than I remember it loading on my PC! I began a game and I was really amazed, it performed way better than I imagined and I might even suffice to say that it was better than my PC. Now granted that my new Macbook is a lot faster than my PC is, a virtualized Windows instance seemed to hold enough water to keep the game running great! I'll also note that I took a snapshot of my VM before I installed Rise of Nations so when I was done testing, ZIP! - I reverted back to the original state of my Windows VM and it was like it never happened! What I think I'll do is build a VM for each PC game I might want to play and burn the VM image to a DVD, then just copy the DVD over and fire it up to play - no dinking around with installs and entering codes and hacking stuff to get it to work and then just to have to do it again later - keeps things clean!

Well, I've rambled on for quite some time now - I need to write up some more stuff about VMware as it pertains to my recent history. In conclusion, buy a Mac and a copy of VMware Fusion - all you'll ever need.