VMware Workstation will work on both the Windows and Linux platforms. Learn how to install VMware Workstation 6.5 in Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS.

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As my curiosity about Linux increases, I decided to load VMware Workstation 6x on the Linux platform. Here are the steps to be successful.

The Tar archive installation is very similar to a RPM installation. One major difference is that the Tar archive needs to be extracted. Your Tar archive is similar to a zipped file in Windows. Let’s walk through the process. (Note: Click on images to enlarge.)
Start by opening a Terminal window in Ubuntu (Applications | Accesories | Terminal (Figure A).

Figure A

Terminal window

Let’s now copy it to the tmp directory and unpack the archive by typing the following command:

tar zxf VMware-workstation-6.0.5-109488.i386.tar.gz

Figure B

Unpacking the archive

The final step (Figure C) includes changing the directory to vmware-distrib and running the installation program by typing the following: sudo ./vmware-install.pl

Figure C

Installing VMware Workstation

Let’s now invoke the vmware-config.pl, as shown in Figure D.

Figure D

You will run through a bunch of steps that will install networking and compile kernels, and voila, you are finished, as shown in Figure E. A piece of cake.

Figure E

Installation complete

Let’s start VMware Workstation by typing /usr/bin/vmware. You must accept the license, and then the VMware Workstation program will start, as shown in Figure F.

Figure F

VMware Workstation 6.0.5

It might be me, but it seem as if VMware Workstation is a little snappier in Linux than in Windows.