There's no need to give an attitude [1], she might not be the only one with this question. Just explain what VMWare is: it's a way to run a virtual machine inside of your main box, so that you don't need another computer to test operating systems out on. And linky: http://www.vmware.com/products/player/
1. Remember the guidelines: Be civil. Don't say things you wouldn't say in a face to face conversation.
Consider: If OP was trolling, I was trying not to feed them. If OP was serious, I was trying to point in right direction. Either way, I was trying not to waste much time doing it.
Edit: Wow, there's a great way to tank someone's comment score. Show up late to the thread and accuse them of being rude. Thanks for that. Judging from the upvotes, most people seem to think that your lesson on civility is the most insightful part of the thread. sigh
Re: edit: hah, sorry about that - I certainly wan't out for your karma. But the community response is encouraging: it's important to value politeness in an anonymous forum, as that's the most endangered requirement for constructive conversation.
That's the point of VMWare, so you can virtualize another system inside of your primary one, in effect "sandboxing" the guest OS so you don't screw anything up.
Running an OS in a VM per se is unlikely to. But if the host system has poor package management and the virtualization software proves problematic (some of them install files all over the place, including kernel extensions), restoring the host system to its previous state can be difficult. It's not an unreasonable concern.
