VMware, the makers of virtualization software, just released a free version of their virtual machine, called VMware Player. It is a watered-down version of their VMware Workstation product that only allows you to run existing images, not create new ones. I think this is brilliant. Virtualization software like VMware or Virtual PC is really, really useful when doing software development because it allows you to quickly test multiple software configurations. I've also used it to instantly revert all changes to a system. This VMware Player could also be used to distribute complete working software configurations to end users. I imagine that this could be a risk-free way for users to try Linux, for example.