Filed under: Linux, Open Source
VMware preconfigured virtual appliances
by Jordan Running Aug 4th 2006
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]
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
