After getting a few tests and trials to run with VMWare Workstation and ending up with acceptable execution speed, I began to plan the types of machines I needed. This is how my list ended up:

Operating System Machines – Base Class

• Win2k Base – Windows 2000 with Firefox, Thunderbird, Acrobat, Flash and Spybot
• Win2k Plus – Win2k Base with Open Office
• Win2k Enterprise – Win2k Base with SQL and IIS
• WinXP Base – Windows XP with Firefox, Thunderbird, Acrobat, Flash and Spybot
• WinXP Plus – WinXP Base with Open Office (or MS Office)
• Suse Linux Base – Base Suse Linux Install
• Suse Linux LAMP – Base Suse Linux with Apache, MySQL and PHP

Machines

• Win2k Plus – Finance Programs
• WinXP Base – Lightroom and Photography
• Win2k Plus – Writing
• Win2k Plus – Hobbies
• Win2k Plus – Visual Studio Programming
• Suse Linux LAMP – Test Web Site for Publishing

These machines all have varying disk sizes, memory requirements and settings to allow for fast execution. I will address each of these items and the workarounds I discovered in future posts.