I use VMware to run Ubuntu on my work laptop, and I’ve gotten to the point where I use Ubuntu on a daily basis for development, testing, and browsing the net without fear of spyware or viruses. VMware runs so fast that when I use fullscreen mode I don’t even notice I’m running it in a virtual machine.

As a relatively new Ubuntu user, one of the fears when upgrading my machine to beta software is that I’m going to be left with an unusable system. Only recently have I started using the Snapshot feature that has existed for quite a while in VMware, and I finally found a great use for it.

I had a working, tweaked and customized Ubuntu Dapper install, but I really wanted to try out Edgy… so I fired up the Snapshot \ Take Snapshot tool and typed in a descriptive snapshot name:

My Edgy install went great, had no problems with it. The VMware tools even continued to work, which was the main thing I was worried about.

The snapshot manager is a beautiful thing… you can see the different snapshots that you have taken, and even a mini screenshot of the system at the exact time you took the snapshot.

So now I’ve started using the Snapshot feature on a regular basis, whenever I’m about to do a large upgrade. The only drawback is a little performance hit, and some extra drive space used. Of course, you can delete the snapshots once you’ve finished upgrading, and retrieve that space.