Can anyone tell me what is the difference?

I understand that vmware can run an iso image and boot it.

In that case, isnt an iso image more "useful" than a vmware image?

Hi,

To what exactly are you referring with VMWare image? The VMDK (virtual disk)? Basically, the ISO file format can be used to burn to a CD/DVD (depending on size) and boot from it in order to use Live or install to hard disk. Or it can be loaded in a virtual CD drive on VMWare virtual machine (or other virtualization platforms for that matter), to boot and / or install to virtual hard disk. The VMWare image format can only be used by virtualization platforms, like VMWare, VirtualBox, and so on. An ISO image is more useful in that it can be used in both situations (burn or load) while a VMWare image can, as far as I know, only be used in virtualization platforms. Is that the information you're looking for?

Kind regards,

Eric

ok since the iso image has 2 uses but the vmware image has only one use, why will the people download the vmware image instead?

Hi,

Because, most likely, with a VMWare image you don't have to go through the entire installation process like you would need to do when booting from an ISO? When you use a VMWare image, you create a virtual machine and point to the image for the disk, or you just import it in VMWare if it was set up to be used that way.

Kind regards,

Eric