VMware Explore Is on the Horizon
VMware Explore Is on the Horizon

Set your sights higher. 4 days. Hundreds of sessions. Endless ideas.

Save the Date
News Releases•4 min read

VMware Delivers VMware Player

VMware Delivers VMware Player

Free New Product Enables Users to Securely Browse the Internet with New Browser Appliance Powered by Mozilla Firefox, to Quickly Run Pre-configured Software Environments and to Access Their Personal Computing Environments on Any PC

PALO ALTO, Calif., December 12, 2005– VMware, Inc., the global leader in virtual infrastructure software for industry-standard systems, today announced the general availability of VMware Player, a free new product that enables anyone to easily run, evaluate and share software in a virtual machine on a Windows or Linux PC. In addition, VMware announced that it has partnered with the Mozilla Corporation to deliver the Browser Appliance, a virtual machine powered by Mozilla Firefox that allows users to securely browse the Internet.

“VMware Player is revolutionizing how end users and software vendors can exploit virtualization technology,” said Brian Byun, vice president of products and alliances at VMware. “There is tremendous momentum around VMware Player on multiple fronts – software distribution without any installation and configuration hassles, making full desktop environments portable and as a secure way to browse the Internet. We are very excited to partner with Mozilla to launch the Browser Appliance. We look forward to working with the broader technical community to develop and share novel applications in virtual machines.”

VMware Player installs like a standard desktop application and runs full 32- and 64-bit applications and operating system environments, known as virtual machines, in a secure, separate environment from the rest of a user’s PC.

Secure Browsing with New Browser Appliance

The Browser Appliance is a free virtual machine that allows users to securely browse the Internet using Mozilla Firefox. Users can run the Browser Appliance with VMware Player to:

  • Protect Against Adware and Spyware: Users protect their PCs against adware, spyware and other malware while browsing the Internet with Firefox in a virtual machine. The Browser Appliance leverages virtual machine isolation capabilities to prevent malware downloaded in the browser from propagating to the normal desktop.
  • Safeguard Personal Information: By automatically resetting the environment after every use, users can safeguard personal information such as passwords, account numbers, browsing history and other personally identifying information. The Browser Appliance can be configured to automatically reset itself after each use so personal information is never stored permanently.

“We are excited to bring the ease of use, security and privacy advantages of Firefox to users of the Browser Appliance. The Firefox browser on top of VMware's virtual machine technology offers a more compelling, secure and private online user experience,” said Christopher Beard, vice president of products at Mozilla. “VMware's innovations are enabling broader access to a better Web browsing experience.”

Software Distribution without Installation or Configuration

VMware Player is ideal for safely running pre-installed, pre-configured applications, beta software and other software distributed in virtual machines. The leading database, application server, application software and operating system vendors in the industry, such as BEA Systems, IBM Software, Novell, Oracle and Red Hat, have developed pre-built VMware environments which are available for free on the VMware Technology Network (VMTN) at www.vmware.com/vmtn/vm/.

In addition, VMware Player has been chosen by a wide range of leading open source communities, research projects, developers and technology vendors as their method for distributing their solutions to end users.

"With VMware Player, users can now download and run a fully configured IP enabled phone system within a virtual machine," said Kristian Kielhofner, founder of AstLinux. "VMware Player will enable users to experience all the power of open source voice over IP (VoIP) technology without ever leaving their native operating system."

"VMware Player is a truly exciting development because it allows anyone to easily adopt Ubuntu's friendly interfaces and powerful features within the comfort of their existing environment," said Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu. "We are pleased to offer a pre-configured Ubuntu virtual machine so anyone can start using Ubuntu immediately."

Portable Personal Computing Environments

With VMware Player, complete desktop environments including data, applications and configurations can be kept and maintained on removable storage devices. Users can carry their personal computing environment with them and securely access their desktop using VMware Player as they move across various PCs at work, home and public locations.

“VMware Player upgrades the portable computing experience. Users can save their entire desktop environment, including data and applications, into a virtual machine, which they then carry around on removable storage devices such as a USB key or iPod,” said Tom Deane, research analyst at Illuminata. “By plugging the device into a PC that has VMware Player installed, users can access their data and use their applications quite rapidly and securely.”

Extensible and Redistributable Platform

VMware Player is designed to be broadly extensible and customizable by developers. One example is the Google search functionality that is integrated into the VMware Player software to allow users to easily search the Internet in a separate, secure desktop environment.

“VMware Player provides an extensible framework that makes it easy to add interesting functionality to the Player user interface,” said Jeff Shardell, director of Google Web Search and Syndication. “We are excited to work with VMware in extending the VMware Player to incorporate Google search technology allowing users to search and safely access the Internet."

VMware is planning to release a version of VMware Player that developers can easily extend and customize in early 2006.

VMware Player may be redistributable by third parties upon approval by VMware. Redistribution policies and guidelines are available at www.vmware.com/download/eula/player_distribution.html.

Availability

VMware Player and Browser Appliance are free and available for immediate download at www.vmware.com/products/player/.

About VMware, Inc.

VMware, an EMC company (NYSE: EMC), is the global leader in virtual infrastructure software for industry-standard systems. The world's largest companies use VMware solutions to simplify their IT, fully leverage their existing computing investments and respond faster to changing business demands. VMware is based in Palo Alto, California. For more information, visit www.vmware.com or call 650-475-5000.


# # #
 

VMware and VMTN are registered trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or various jurisdictions. All other trademarks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.