parallels workstation linux 2.2 trial software / shareware for linux

Parallels Workstation is the most powerful, easiest-to-use, cost-effective desktop virtualization solution available today. It empowers any user, from experienced professional developers to computer "newbies", to create completely networked, totally secure independent, maximally stable virtual machines on a single physical machine without partitioning or rebooting. Virtual machines can run nearly any x86 operating system, including the entire Windows family from 3.1 - XP/2003/Vista, Linux, FreeBSD, OS/2, eComStation, Sun Solaris and MS-DOS. Using the product?s easy step-by-step wizard, users can create virtual machines in seconds. Users can also easily manage active or inactive virtual machine properties with zero training by using Workstation?s e intuitive, web-like interface. The product is available at an industry-leading price of $49.99/license.

Parallels Workstation is a powerful, easy to use, cost effective desktop virtualization solution that empowers PC users with the ability to create completely networked, fully portable, entirely independent virtual machines on a single physical machine.
Parallels Workstation is the ideal solution to accelerate software development, reduce hardware costs, improve IT efficiency, present complex demostrations on a laptop and create student-friendly teaching environments.
Main features:
- Strong OS Support: A sophisticated virtual machine engine that offers a broad support of x86-based operating systems, including the entire Windows family from 3.1 to XP and Server 2003, virtually all Linux distributions, FreeBSD, and "legacy" operating systems like OS/2, eComStation and MS-DOS.
- Efficient: A small program footprint maximizes hardware efficiency for both the host machine and guest virtual machines.
- Easy to Use: An easy to use wizard helps users create virtual machines in seconds. A user-friendly management console ensures hassle free control of virtual machines.
- Economical: Parallels Workstation is the most cost effective virtualization solution available in this field today.
Host Computer Hardware Requirements
- The computer to be used for installing and running Parallels Workstation should meet the following hardware requirements:
- 400 MHz or faster processor which supports the Pentium II instruction set. 1,5 GHz or faster is recommended.
- 32bit platform. 64bit platforms are experimentally supported in Linux host OS.
- Memory to run the host OS (for example, 128 Mb for Windows XP) plus memory required for each guest operating system and its applications.
- Hard disk with 20 Mb of free disk space is required for product installation. Disk space required for Virtual Machines should be estimated according to volume of data you suppose to store on virtual hard disks.
- Any SVGA video card with an 8-bit display adapter supported by the host (Windows GUI, Linux X-Server, etc.). 16 bit color depth or higher is recommended.
- Optional: a 3.5" floppy drive, CD-ROM drive, DVD-ROM drive.
- If you intend to access Internet in Virtual Machine, you should have Ethernet adapter installed on your computer that is supported by your host OS: Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 or Linux. The adapter should provide the promiscuous mode and supporting network features for a VM. At present, almost every 10/100/1000 Ethernet card can support the promiscuous mode.
- Optional: serial port, parallel port.
Virtual Machine Hardware Specification
- Parallels Workstation virtualizes a full set of the standard PC hardware including:
- CPU Pentium II or AMD Duron;
- Generic motherboard compatible with Intel i815 chipset;
- RAM up to 1500 Mb;
- VGA and SVGA with VESA 3.0 support;
- 1.44 Mb floppy drive (mapped to a physical drive or to an image file);
- Up to four IDE devices, that may be either virtual hard drives (from 20 Mb up to 128 Gb each, mapped to image file), or CD/DVD-ROM drives (mapped to physical drive or to image file), or both hard drives and CD/DVD-ROM drives;
- Up to four serial (COM) ports (mapped to real port, to pipe or to output file);
- Up to three bi-directional parallel (LPT) ports (mapped to real port, to printer or to output file);
- Ethernet virtual network card compatible with RTL8029; Generic Parallels Virtual network card;
- AC97 compatible sound card;
- 104-key Windows enhanced keyboard;
- PS/2 wheel mouse.
Enhancements:
- Microsoft Vista is fully supported as a guest OS.
- Bugs were fixed.

VMware Workstation is powerful desktop virtualization software for software developers/testers and IT professionals who want to streamline software development, testing and deployment in their enterprise.
VMware Workstation software allows the users to run multiple x86-based operating systems, including Linux, Windows, and NetWare, and their applications simultaneously on a single PC in fully networked, portable virtual machines no hard drive partitioning or rebooting required.
Shipping for more than six years and winner of more than a dozen major product awards, VMware Workstation improves productivity and flexibility, and reduces costs so dramatically that it has become an indispensable tool for software development and IT professionals worldwide.
Main features:
- Streamline software development and testing operations. Create multiple development and testing environments as virtual machines on a single PC and use them to test "real world" multi-tier configurations, complex networks, and multiple operating systems and applications all on a single machine.
- Improve team collaboration. The portability and hardware-independent properties of virtual machines, coupled with new features in VMware Workstation, lets users easily share development environments and pre-packaged testing configurations without risk, and also facilitates collaboration between development and QA.
- Enhance the productivity of IT professionals. Allows system administrators and other enterprise IT professionals to test software, including new applications, application updates, and operating system patches, in virtual machines prior to deployment on physical PCs or servers in a production environment. IT help desk departments can create and reference a virtual library of end-user configurations to help them resolve problems more quickly.
- Introduce virtual infrastructure to your enterprise. Virtual machines created in Workstation can be deployed to the other desktop and server virtualization platforms offered by VMware. Introducing VMware Workstation virtualization to the desktop is an ideal first step to transforming your physical IT infrastructure into virtual infrastructure.
VMware Workstation works by creating fully isolated, secure virtual machines that encapsulate an operating system and its applications. The VMware virtualization layer maps the physical hardware resources to the virtual machines resources, so each virtual machine has its own CPU, memory, disks, and I/O devices, and is the full equivalent of a standard x86 machine. VMware Workstation installs onto the host operating system and provides broad hardware support by inheriting device support from the host.
Enhancements:
http://www.vmware.com/support/ws6/doc/releasenotes_ws6.html