What's New in the Latest Release
      
Changes for VMware Beta IV - 3/8/99

+ Overall performance improvements, with significant improvements in
  graphics performance and operating systems installation time.

+ Improvements in the installer (install.pl)
  - Simplified install process
  - Reduced the number of files that are installed
  - Removed the concept of site installs
  - Fixed script problems on Caldera 1.3 and SuSE 6.0 host operating
    systems

+ Improved support for guest operating systems
  - Windows 98 now installs very reliably as a guest operating system

  Note: VMware intends to support Solaris 7 Intel Edition and Windows
  2000 Beta as guest operating systems with VMware release 1.0. VMware
  Beta V does not support these operating systems

+ Graphics hardware acceleration
  - Full-screen mode takes advantage of some of the acceleration features
    offered by the real graphics card. This requires an upgrade of your 
    XFree86 server, available at http://www.vmware.com/xfree86.  
  - Graphics hardware acceleration support is used by Windows 95,
    Windows 98, and Windows NT guest operating systems.
  - The windowed mode graphics performance has also been greatly improved

+ The VMware toolbox which provides --
  - Smooth motion of the mouse cursor between the virtual machine and the 
    host UI. 
  - Copy/Paste between virtual machine(s) and the host is also available, 
    in Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT guest operating systems.  
  - Download and run VMware Tools to install the VMware Toolbox and the
    optimized guest Operating systems graphics driver.
    windows on the X-desktop.

+ Improved GUI
  - Improved configuration editor
  - The disk manager is now integrated with the configuration editor
  - New configuration wizard for setting up virtual machines
  - Autofit window sizing
  - "About Box" and links to www.vmware.com

+ PCI Plug & Play support within a VM
  - Easier installation of Windows operating systems
  - No more configuring IRQ=11 for virtual Ethernet cards under Windows!

+ Improved support for host-only networking

+ License manager (all beta version will still time expire)

+ Optional support for APM (Advanced Power Management) within a virtual machine
  - Ability to suspend virtual machines

+ Arbitration for sharing of removable media devices between virtual machines

+ "vmx86" is replace by "vmware" to align with marketing naming

+ Numerous bug fixes and improvements

------------------------------------------------------------

Changes for VMware Beta IV - 02/07/99

+ A new Windows NT SVGA driver with significant windowed
  mode performance improvements.  Download it and follow
  the instructions to install in Windows NT.
  Windowed mode graphics performance is now comparable to
  full-screen mode (More full screen mode performance
  improvements will be coming soon).

+ Significant performance improvements for operating systems
  installations.
  - Windows NT and Windows 95 now install in only about 10
  minutes more than it takes on a real machine

+ A new BIOS within the virtual machine, which provides
  support for --
  - Raw access to large drives (>8.4GB)
  - Intel, AMD and Cyrix processors
  - Non-standard disk geometries (allowing booting virtual
  machines from raw disk partitions on some computers from
  HP and IBM for example)

+ An improved installer (install.pl) which includes --
  - New default install option for quick installs
  - Easier updates of existing installations
  - Clearer explanations of installation questions

+ The Beta IV release has been tested with the following
  host operating systems;
  - Red Hat 5.2 (Red Hat 5.0 and 5.1 should also work)
  - Caldera OpenLinux 1.3(*)
  - SuSE Linux 6.0(*)
  (*) There are minor problems with the Beta IV install on
  Caldera OpenLinux 1.3 and SuSE Linux 6.0. See our release
  notes about working around these issues.

+ So far the Beta IV release has been tested with the
  following guest operating systems --
  - MS-DOS 6.22
  - Windows 3.1
  - Windows 95
  - Windows 98
  - Windows NT 3.5
  - Windows NT 4.0 SP 3 and SP 4
  - Red Hat 5.2
  - Caldera OpenLinux 1.3
  (other Linux operating systems are expected to work as
  guest OSes)


History of Changes

Changes for the Beta III release - 01/11/99

This release is a huge step ahead compared to the previous one.
Thanks to our many testers, we have been able greatly change
and improve the product. Main aspects of the changes are:

+ The install script has been improved to allow automatic
  install on any Linux kernel version
+ Linux 2.2.0 kernels are supported - both uni-processor and
  SMP kernels
+ Improved support for the latest Xfree86 X-Server (Xfree86
  3.3.3) running on the Host Operating System
+ Sound Blaster(R) compatible PCM sound (.wav or .au files
  but not MIDI) is supported within a virtual session,
  although currently it works poorly under several
  circumstances, including heavy CPU load
+ Performance of VGA sessions within an X-Window has been
  improved by using shared memory
+ Improvements in Virtual Networking:
     * vnet-bridge code, including management of promiscuous
       mode has been moved into the Linux kernel vnet module
     * Promiscuous mode is now only enabled on the Ethernet
       card when needed instead of all the time
     * Better error detection of incorrect vnet
       configurations
+ A progress bar showing percentage complete is now
  displayed during the log commit to undoable disks
+ Fix for the NT "blue screen" bug
+ Fix for the DOS Box bug (a bug was fixed that cause
  illegal instruction errors when running the DOS box under
  Windows)
+ Numerous other bugs fixes and performance improvements

Changes for the Beta II release - 12/02/98

+ Major performance improvements
+ Workarounds for the linux 2.0.35 (redhat 5.1) bugs
+ Many bug fixes

Changes for the Beta I release - 10/20/98

+ Major performance improvement with regards to the
  Descriptor Tables
+ Asynchronous I/O for floppy and CD-ROM (Big Performance
  Issue)
+ GUI improvements in both user interaction and to
  configuration panel
+ Windows 95 SVGA mode with separate SVGA driver
+ Better full screen mode control
+ Keyboard fixes: LEDs, backspace even when remapped
+ Floppy should now work under both the NT and Win95
  protected mode drivers.
+ Parallel Port support: attached parallel port devices
  (printers) can be used in the VM, early Zip drive support.
+ Linux 2.1.123 support, including SMP
+ Misc. Bug Fixes

Changes for the Alpha II release - 9/24/98

+ Most bugs reported with Alpha I are now fixed.
+ Enable logging via the loglevel.* configuration options.
+ Install script is smarter-- full install is the default,
  check host kernel version.
+ Keyboard LEDs should function properly in fullscreen mode.
+ All MMX instructions are now supported.
+ Driver source separated out and made publicly available.
+ Much further support for undoable disks, query for
  preserving/discarding  changes at boot.
+ Streamlined the output, many warnings became log messages.
+ Run even without the kernel RTC, just keep less precise
  time.
+ Support multiple Ethernet cards.
+ Fix some IDE bugs that were breaking the Win98 setup.
+ Added diagnostic code and a partial fix around a speaker
  bug where the speaker never turned off.
+ More careful tracking of page locking to prevent the bug
  that could cause lockup in diskwait when either load or
  paging went too high.
+ Fixed some bugs in handling disks that complained
  erroneously about bogus size or modifications that didn't
  happen.
+ Readme from the Web page added to the distribution
+ Fixed serial port bug that occured when hanging up a
  modem.
+ Cleaned up various memory leaks
+ More correct IDE emulation because of how Windows does
  ATAPI resets.

