Filed under: Linux, Open Source
VMware preconfigured virtual appliances
by Jordan Running Aug 4th 2006 at 7:00PM
Okay, so we get the big deal about VMware: Through the magic of virtualization, it lets you run multiple, varied operating systems on top of one host OS. But wait, here's a new wrinkle (well, new to me, at least): The VMware web site has a directory of "virtual appliances," which are "fully pre-installed and pre-configured application and operating system environments that run on any standard x86 desktop or server in a self-contained, isolated environment known as a virtual machine." What that means is that if you a Linux box with the free VMware Server installed and you want to, say, run a networked file server with it, you don't have to bother with downloading ISOs, installing and configuring software, etc.--all you have to do is download the FreeNAS virtual appliance and boot it in VMware. Okay, that's nothing fancy--FreeNAS is easy to install on its own--but what if you wanted to use the same machine for running a Ruby on Rails development environment at the same time? Just download the Rails Appliance. There's free virtual appliances for pretty much any server task, like running the Asterisk PBX, a Jabber IM server, or a Battlefield 2 game server. I'm seriously going to be trying this out as soon as I get a new hard drive for that bare-bones box I have sitting in the closet.[Via Matt Croydon]
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With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet.
They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...
