These are short and easy things to do which can make your Linux desktop even more convenient than it currently is. Trying Ubuntu out without changing your distribution or creating a new drive partition or installing it on another HD, setting up OpenOffice so ability to read/write Windows Office 2007 word processor documents are what you'll learn how to do today.

The instructions assume you've got a working VMware Server, perhaps one you set up to run a Windows VMware guest. If you don't, I recommend you find VMware Server instructions specific to your distro.

Installing a Linux OS on an installed VMware Server is relatively easy. Start the wizard by: From the main VMware Server Console tab: Push the "Create a New Virtual Machine" button.

Install as you would anywhere else. You may find that it can't see all the USB peripherals connected to the host in Main VMware Window > VM > Removable Devices > USB devices. See the Troubleshooting section later in this article for the most likely problem/solution.

Next: Setting Up VMware Tools »