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I was not really sure where to place this topic. My topic concerns the best method for optimizing hardware resources, so the topic should be in the hardware subforum. However, this method is based on a software environment, so it can be in a software forum. Today, Virtualization is the key concept in hardware infrastructure technology. However, rather few people can really feel what “virtual” means in the computer world. This text will help you learning and touching with your own fingers what virtualization is. Today we will install two virtual machines, a Linux one and a Windows one, in a single computer box. Our hardware computer box is a Windows PC, and the virtualization environment is the free version of vmware player. First of all, Install the software For our training purposes, we will use vmware player, the free version of the vmware virtualization suite. Get vmware player from : https://www.vmware.com/products/workstation-player/workstation-player-evaluation.html It's free for personal learning purposes. Click on the downloaded installation file, that’s all. Now you are ready, start the software, you reach the welcome screen Create your first partion. Click « create a new machine » Let’s do it simple today, do not choose « I will install the operating system later », install from a disc or from an iso file. Her you see that I want to install from the Centos iso. Click « next », the Easy Installation wizard detected that you are installing CentOS, and asks you the username as well as the root user passwords. Choose the machine name, choose or create the location on the disk where you want everything been stored Press Next, you will be asked for the disk size, and then comes the final summary, you can accept it or click « customize hardware » if you want to change something Today we will accept all these settings, click « Finish ». You will se the automatic install starting, the machine will boot on the installation media The automatic install will continue with the packages installations Go and have a coffee (if you want one) while the install continues. At the end of the installation you see the login screen for the user you created, named “The Big Boss” Forget about the vmware tools install error, you will be able to install them manually. Log in with the password previously defined. In order to check that you obtained a full functional machine, click the firefox icon, and you will be able to connect to the Xisto forum ! Installing our second machine. Let’s do something less simple for the second machine. Open vmplayer again (now we have two instances of the player running) On the new window we see the name of the first running machine. Click « Create a New Virtual Machine » and choose « I will install the operating system later » We want to install a Windows 7 machine. Choose the name and the location of the machine Now comes the interesting part. In the Disk Capacity menu, I don’t want the suggested 60 Gigs size , I change it to 15 I accept the other suggested values, and I click « Finish » The new system is now visible on the main screen. We still need to define the installation media, so click « Edit virtual machine settings », and choose the install media. After that, choose « Play Virtual Machine ». As soon as you click « Play Virtual Machine », you see the standard Windows install process starting, saying « Windows is loading files » for instance. Simply wait until the end of the installation, asking the standard questions if needed. After the last reboot you will have a full functional Windows system. Summary and conclusion. You have learned how to install two virtual machines inside your home computer using vmware player, the vmware environment free for private use. This is a spectacular method for saving hardware : instead of buying three different computers, you now have three computers inside the same box : your home computer, for word-processing usage and looking at movies, a CentOS computer for database testings, and a Windows computer for testing purposes when you simultenously need two PC’s. A single hardware computer for three usable systems, that’s the miracle of virtualization, and you have learned how to master it. You have seen with your own eyes how you save cpu, memory, and money, when you install several virtual machines inside the same physical server, instead of buying several boxes. You will even be able to copy inside this box the appliances preopared by your friends or colleagues. In order to go further, you will need to switch to the more advanced (unfortunately not free) environment, the vmware workstation server. This will give you the ability to use a lot of useful features, for instance : The ability of cloning your virtual machine, and create templates for massive deployments. The ability of converting a physical compute to a virtual machine, for migration purposes. A single console for all your virtual machines. The « Unity » mode, where all the windows of your virtual machine are opened on your single physical screen, no need to switch from one machine to the other one. The differences between the free player and the paid pro versions are listed here : https://www.vmware.com/products/workstation-pro.html And when you will have finished prospecting everything you can train yourself concerning the virtualization with vmware, you can switch to the competing scenarios, for instance the ones based on kvm…

In my final of three Joomla book reviews, Joomla <explained> is coming the boys and girls of the Joomla organization themselves, that's right, they came out with their own beginners guide to this book and so now I really messed everyone up if you read my other two reviews on Beginner Joomla books. Then you are either pulling your hair out or ready to hunt me down and beat me for wasting all your money, but there is where your wrong my friends. Why are you wrong, simple this is the second book that has come out by the boys and girls of Joomla and this time it covers Joomla 1.6 instead of 1.5 so there. So whats the premise, its simple, you follow the book and you design the example Joomla website that is built for the book and low and behold your a Joomla expert. Well, not really an expert but you will get a better understanding of Joomla, but sadly though just like the other two books I mentioned, this one is also outdated, but the messed up part is that Joomla 1.6 did not last long as they went straight to Joomla 1.7. However, if you decided that 1.5 wasn't worth the upgrade and your decided that it is time for an upgrade, unless of course you got hacked. Then this book is a great jumping off point for you. Unless, you decide that 1.7 was too much of a pain and your going to stick to 1.6 for awhile (not really). While this book doesn't go into much detail on the changes themselves, and at this point does it really matter? This book is your basic guide that covers everything you need to get started in sixteen glorious chapters (Yeah I know Jen has 33). The book isn't technical in nature so it is an easy read for you non-techies out there and it won't make your head explode and so it should be a fun experience to learn about Joomla if you were to purchase this book. At this point I realize that I review three books that covered the same thing and I will say this you could go with any one of them at this point and the kicker being that this book is even more current then the other two so clearly it is up to you on what book to purchase if any at all. That being said, this book is just as good as the other two and so it is a matter of preference.

The next book I will be reviewing is one of two this author has written, and here is the kicker I actually know this author as she was the former head of the Master's program I am in and a former teacher at the school, was a co-leader in the Adobe and Joomla User groups as well, runs a descent size Joomla designing business among many other things as well. Now on to the book. Joomla Start to Finish - How to Plan, Execute, and Maintain Your Website is your beginners guide to running your very own Joomla website. To start, what is Joomla? Joomla is a CMS or Content Management System and to date is one of the most popular CMS's out there. So what does book have to offer? Well to make your life easier it starts off with how to install and configure Joomla on to you web host, descriptions of the various Joomla modules, adding content, Joomla templates, maintenance, tips and tricks, and more. While this isn't the Joomla Bible, it is still a invaluable source of information and while this book is already outdated as of Joomla 1.7.3, Joomla 1.5 is still pretty common enough in terms of Joomla templates, extensions, and modules. So, you could use this book to get you going and once you feel comfortable enough with understanding how Joomla works, you can go to the next step of upgrading from 1.5 to 1.7.3 and begin to work out all the new features 1.7 has to offer and believe me there are plenty. Like I said, this book is a great place to start, but when your ready to move on, there are plenty of books that get more advanced with Joomla.