Re: VMWare and Tech Docs

["David O'Brien" <OBrien_David_P -at- cat -dot- com>]

Bill,

It's not exactly used as a major part of the documentation effort, but (among 
other things) I use VMWare to test how pdfs and html pages appear in various 
browsers, etc., in Linux, and to use Windows-only software on my Linux box.

There are some limitations but they vary depending on which O/S you use for 
the host and guest. The VMWare site should have info on that. The ones I've 
noticed are writing to CDs and sometimes reading/writing floppies, and 
sharing USB devices. It's not a major issue for me so I haven't endeavoured 
to solve them. The host machine generally gets first crack at such devices 
and you have to "allow" the guest to use them.

I have an office workstation setup:
Win2000Pro Host with Mandrake 9.1 guest
I use Frame and run the application that I document, do all the screenshots, 
etc., in Windows, and test pdfs, html output, etc., in Konqeror, Mozilla and 
Acrobat REader 5 (latest for Linux).
I'm fortunate enough to have two 19" monitors (I kicked and screamed until I 
got them) which helps enormously.

And an office server setup:
Win2000Server host with Win2000Server guest
Host runs the application (it's big and hungry) and the guest runs a web 
server for a reporting system that hooks into the database used by the host. 
It's sitting on the desk beside me and I haven't touched it (from a 
maintenance point of view) for weeks.

These are all Intel P4, 2Ghz, 1G RAM machines

I also have a home setup:
Mandrake 9.0 host with Win2000Server guest
I can run everything I want in Windows, connect to the office, use cvs, 
terminal services to the office servers to run applications, etc. 

This is an AMD P4, 2Ghz, 512M RAM machine

I have shares, etc., set up in both installations so I can share files and 
directories pretty much at will between host and guest and across the 
network.

Later versions of VMWare seem to be pretty reliable. My biggest groan comes 
when the host crashes (guess where that happens the most) and takes out the 
guest with it.

 Hopefully this is of some help.
regards,
David

 
 El Vie 10 Oct 2003 07:33, Bill Burns escribió:
> It looks like we're going to start using VMWare here (in our docs
> department, development already uses it) to emulate different work
> environments so we can test our software and verify our documentation. From
> what I've seen of it, the product looks quite impressive.
>
> How many of you are using VMWare in your documentation efforts? What does
> it allow you to do that you aren't able to do using separate test systems?
> What are its limitations, from your perspective?
>
> Bill Burns
> Documentation Supervisor/MS Help MVP
> Quality Design Systems
> bburns -at- teamqds -dot- com
>
-- 
David O'Brien BA(Hons) Language & Translation
Senior Technical Writer, Software Translation Coordinator
MineStar Support Team

Caterpillar MineStar Solutions - Asia Pacific Division
Brisbane, Queensland

Phone: 617 3329 8122		Fax:     617 3329 8101
david -dot- obrien -at- cat -dot- com


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