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]