Gary,

> I would like to know whether anyone on this list has had experience using
> VMWare on a Linux-based system.

Yes, lots.

> dual booting. For anyone who has tried it, how has it performed? 

Great, almost as fast as native hardware once it's booted.

> What problems, if any, have you encountered with it? 

Do not change the underlying hardware configuration and then expect 
vmware to start & run properly.  I have it installed on a laptop and the 
floppy disk drive is not always there.  If I start vmware connected to 
the (not-present) floppy disk device, Windows NT will not boot.  The 
solution is to "disconnect" the device in the vmware config before 
"power-on" .

Do not run Windows 98 in a vmware virtual machine under VMware for Windows
NT.  Also, we have had general problems with the VMWware video driver for
Windows 98.  The Windows NT video driver works fine. 

If you use a desktop/sound "scheme" under Windows the sound for
mouse-clicks, etc. lags by a split-second from when it should be (on my
PII-400, at least).  You get used to it.  The does sound work fine though. 

> What do you generally have
> to give up, in terms of performance, etc., to use this kind of "dual" OS
> setup?

Just put in as much RAM as you can afford, and assuming you can afford 
lots of RAM, you'll be fine.

> We have a need to be able to run Windows-based applications
> concurrently with Linux/Unix applications, and this software sounds good, if
> it actually does what it claims.

Yes, it does what it claims.  I think it's worth the $$, and I've bought 
several full-commercial licenses for it.

--
Jim Ockers (ockers@ockers.net)                     Ask me about Linux!
Contact info: please see http://www.ockers.net/

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