VMWare is the best virtualization software, period. I've been running VMWare workstation on my PC, ESX to host my servers, and Fusion Beta on my Mac .... Fusion goes final next week! Woohoo!

VMWare is the best virtualization software for Windows and they just released the 6th generation. This is what I use to test my code in different environments, different databases, os's, etc: CFMX7, CFMX8, Windows, Linux, Oracle 9, Oracle 10, PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2005 ... it's trully amazing. You can now clone existing systems and virtualize them; this was previously available only with VMWare Server. I also ran Ubuntu Workstation, OSX, just to test them. You can develop locally and map a folder in your VM to your local machine, thus, all your dev environments will read out of the same codebase. Among the new features you can find:

• Windows Vista support: Users can deploy Windows Vista as a guest or host operating system, facilitating re-hosting of legacy systems, enabling upgrade and migration projects with minimal end-user disruption and simplifying Windows Vista evaluations.
• Multiple monitor display: Users can configure one virtual machine to span multiple monitors or multiple virtual machines to each display on separate monitors with this industry-first capability, enhancing desktop productivity.
• USB 2.0 support: Users can take advantage of high-performance peripherals such as Apple iPods and fast storage devices.
• ACE authoring capabilities: As a companion to VMware Workstation 6, VMware now offers a VMware ACE Option Pack, which enables VMware Workstation 6 users to create secure, centrally manageable virtual machines. Mobility is one of the primary benefits of this Option Pack, as it allows users to securely transport virtual machines on portable media devices such as USB memory sticks.
• Integrated Physical-to-Virtual (P2V) functionality: Users can create a virtual machine in minutes by “cloning” an existing physical computer.
• Integrated virtual debugger: Users can deploy, run and debug programs inside a virtual machine directly from their preferred integrated development environments (IDEs), accelerating debugging with this industry-first integration with Eclipse and Microsoft Visual Studio.
• Background virtual machine execution: Users can run virtual machines in the background without the VMware Workstation user interface for an uncluttered user experience.
• Automation APIs: Users can write scripts and programs that automate and help quicken virtual machine testing with support for VIX API 2.0.

In addition, VMware Workstation 6 advances the state of the art in virtualization technology with groundbreaking new capabilities including:

• Continuous virtual machine record and replay (experimental): Users can record the execution of a virtual machine, including all inputs, outputs and decisions made along the way. On demand, the user can go “back in time” to the start of the recording and replay execution, guaranteeing that the virtual machine will perform exactly the same operations every time and ensuring bugs can be reproduced and resolved.
• Virtual Machine Interface (VMI) support (experimental): VMware Workstation 6 is the first virtualization platform to allow execution of paravirtualized guest operating systems that implement the VMI interface.

I installed Ubuntu today on a VMWare... I know, it must be Ubuntu's day, Matt blogged about his experience too. I'm not as extremist and not a M$ hater... I installed it on a VM machine using VMWare Workstation. Ubuntu comes with Open Office, Firefox, Gaim, so you're almost ready to go. I installed Eclipse, CFEclipse, Aptana, XMLBuddy, and IE6. heh, I know what you thinking, but Adobe only provide a Flash 7 release for linux, so I installed Wine and IE6+Flash9... mostly for Flash 9 support. I will probably only use it for my Flex Development.

I still haven't been able to modify my screen resolution to support wide 1440x900px. I'm sure I'll find a way tomorrow.

I'm also looking fw to try to connect Ubuntu to my exchange server this week ... if I can do that successfully it would be a big plus. I also need itunes, or a way to manage my ipod... Anyways, I've only played with it a few hours... more to come soon.