Vmware Skeptic with Vista

April 20, 2007 7:08 AM

Vmware Skeptic with Vista

We have Vmware skeptic's who are not willing to test a custom app in a Vista virtual environment to certify for their customers. They are requiring a physical environment. Does anyone have any data that indicates physical and virtual with vmware are 100% the same in testing a software's compatibility with an operating system?

posted by strangej to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Vmware and Virtual PC are basically machines for most intents and purposes, and should work fine for most software validation. (In fact, it is what we use where I work).

That said, if you are testing hardware access (USB devices for example), then you will want access to actual hardware and not virtualized access as VMware and VPC would provide.

You might contact VMWare and ask them for better info. Their customer support has been fantastic in my experience.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 7:24 AM on April 20, 2007

VMWare doesn't support USB 2.0 or hardware 3D acceleration, but for all other purposes it is identical.

See: Virtualisation. Most of the "hardware" of a virtual machine is using the original hardware anyway. (This is more true with VMWare than it is with Virtual PC - which is more of an emulator.)
posted by Mwongozi at 7:44 AM on April 20, 2007

I develop software and would not accept a Vmware test as adequate, though I don't have data. Our software includes drivers and kernel stuff though, and you may be more relaxed about consumer applications. So, it depends on the app. And on the customer ... aren't they always right?
posted by anadem at 8:46 AM on April 20, 2007

Symantec uses VMWare to test their internet security products. If it's good enough for them...
posted by jknecht at 9:13 AM on April 20, 2007

Best answer: VMWare is extraordinarily compatible. If a program doesn't need to talk directly to hardware, it will run flawlessly. Period.

Sometimes, it'll even work then, depending on the hardware.
posted by Malor at 10:43 AM on April 20, 2007

(by 'directly to hardware', I was also intending 3d acceleration, which doesn't work....but it isn't truly direct hardware access. So that's not completely true.)
posted by Malor at 10:45 AM on April 20, 2007