VMware or Spare Boxes

For a while I have been dual booting XP and Ubuntu. As my desire to learn more has grown, I've decided that I would like to wipe my computer and reformat with Slackware. Reasons for this would be to get a better understanding of linux. I would also like to run Backtrack 2 and DVL. So my question is, is VMware a good alternative to using another box to put DVL onto? Can I do about anything I would be able to do with 2 separate computers? And does the network aspect of it mimic reality well/Will I learn as much about networking using VMware?

Deflogc wrote: For a while I have been dual booting XP and Ubuntu. As my desire to learn more has grown, I've decided that I would like to wipe my computer and reformat with Slackware. Reasons for this would be to get a better understanding of linux. I would also like to run Backtrack 2 and DVL. So my question is, is VMware a good alternative to using another box to put DVL onto? Can I do about anything I would be able to do with 2 separate computers? And does the network aspect of it mimic reality well/Will I learn as much about networking using VMware?

Well, alright… I'm a fan of both Ubuntu (and other Debian-based Linuxes) and Slackware, though I'm not sure why you'd want to completely reformat with Slackware if you're already in a sufficient dual-boot situation.

VMWare is a solid alternative for experimenting with OS's inside of your current OS. The general consensus on the "network aspect" of VMWare suggests that, thus far, the virtual networking has proven sufficient for simulating real traffic. As always, judge this for yourself as you conduct network-based attacks, since it is, after all, emulated networking. Personally, I have not noticed any issues with VMWare, and often use it in a networked situation. Also, you might want to check out VirtualBox; I've been messing with that lately, and found it to be very similar to VMWare (and free, including the ability to create blank images for CD-installs).

Really, though, if you have a physical box, the ability to network computers, and a reasonably lengthy interest in messing with DVL, then I'd probably just go ahead and set up the physical box. Virtual machines do utilize system resources, after all.

Thank you for your response. The reason for completely reformatting is mostly to force myself to use Slackware and learn. Perhaps once I'm satisfied with my knowledge of Linux I will go back to a dual boot. The wiping of XP isn't a big deal because I was going to do that anyway just because things have gotten messy and there's nothing important on it.