I have downloaded the VMWare 5 beta and am now deciding whether to install it.

I have VMWare Workstation 4.5.2 installed, and this is a production version that is quite important to me. I will install the beta if it will install beside 4.5.2 and not over top of it.

I have emailed VMWare to ask the question, and they have not responded. Does anyone here know if the beta will install beside the production copy, or will it overwrite?

Well, quite obvoiusly it'll overwrite it. You could have found that out simply by checking the file paths.

Quite obviously, huh? It isn't obvious from the installer script and I haven't spent the time studying it that it takes to determine what file paths will be built. I also haven't verified whether the file names are the same. There are hundreds of files in the tarball and I am not inclined to figure it all out, which is why I asked.

I actually wouldn't consider it to be "quite obvious" that a beta would overwrite a release. Good way to hose a production environment. The file paths I see in the tarball won't overwrite when the thing is untarred, and I wouldn't care if it did. I care about what happens on the install.

They offer an rpm as well. Rpms show you the file paths when you open them for easy comparison. Might keep that in mind next time you need to compare software versions.