pkgsrc/emulators/vmware    VMware Workstation 2.x
         pkgsrc/emulators/vmware3   VMware Workstation 3.x

There are a few problems:

  vmware costs $300.

  It is now hard/impossible to buy 2.x and 3.x licenses, as 4 is
  current.  vmware did tell someone I know that it was ok to reuse a
  2.x license file on multiple machines as long as all the other
  machines had a v4 license.  (I.e., it's fine with them for you to
  run old versions on a machine with a current license.)   But if you
  don't already have 1 old license this won't help.

  vmware works pretty well, but I (with vmware2) have occasional
  lockups and crashes.

Still, it has served me well for being able to run monopoly word
processing and presentation software.  (Fortunately, gnumeric works
well enough I don't need to run the monopoly spreadsheet.)

I use 'host mode' in vmware, so the virtual host is on an 'ethernet'
with one interface on the real computer (vmnet1) and a le0 on the
emulated computer.  I then run nat and firewall.  This has the
advantage of not connecting a computer (even a virtual one) running
unsafe code to the Internet.


If I didn't need this to work on my notebook in various places, I
would be very inclined to just get a cheap PC and not deal with
vmware.  I'd probably still set up a private net and nat/firewall the
box, though.

So if your only problem is swapping from not enough memory and it's
really a Pentium II, I would advise just getting more memory.  Most
Pentium II systems I've seen take regular PC100 SDRAM.  You should be
able to take the existing memory to someplace competent (easier said
than found, I know), and get a 256MB DIMM.  


-- 
        Greg Troxel <gdt@ir.bbn.com>