Southampton Solent University is in the process of installing VMware onto its network, which will enable Linux, Microsoft Windows, and other operating systems to run on the same PC at the same time.

From an Educational standpoint this will give students there the opportunity to learn, use, compare, and evaluate different operating systems, applications, and programming languages without the need for Dual Boot software or separate PC’s each dedicated to any particular operating system.

There will be free demonstrations available of VMware running on Southampton Solent University PC’s for those attending the OSSG Open Source Software Quality in Practice event there on 27th October 2005.

I would be interested to know what others think about the advantages or otherwise of using VMware with Open Source Software in an Educational environment.

Mark Elkins