[Cialug] Which VM for workstation use?

[Nathan C. Smith]

So I got my new mighty workstation (dual opteron dual cores, 2 GB RAM) and
put Ubuntu 32 bit on the bare metal and then loaded Vmware server (free
edition).  I'm getting horrible performance and I cannot get my windows
workstation ghosted on to the machine.  Even once XP gets loaded with vmware
tools I'm feeling a bit let down.

I've used Vmware workstation in the past and we use ESX server to host
several applications in house and I've never seen it perform quite so
horribly trying to do these setup tasks.  I don't have the patience for a DD
copy but that is about all I am left with.

I'm looking for a little guidance - Should I switch products to something
else VM Workstation, Xen.... ?  Or keep banging my head against VM server?

I'm having a "Virtual isn't all it is cracked up to be" moment.

-Nate