I have a group of 10 (with growth expected to 16 or so) developers. I want to give them each a screaming desktop machine (quad core 3.0 gigaherts, 64 bit, 4-8 gig or memory) OR a screaming virtual desktop machine which they will connect to from their laptops via vnc and use for all of their application development. Currently, they are doing all development on their wimpy laptops. They will keep their laptops for general use and for connecting to their virtual development machines.
The MAJOR requirement is that they get the same performance as they would if I provided them each a screaming desktop machine. I would like to know if it is possible to provide such performance to each of my developers vis-a-vis a virtual machine. I prefer this approach but they will cut my you know what off if I don't give them the kind of performance that an individual machine would give them.
Is this is possible using vmware server? I would appreciate some discussion on the server requirements for such a feat., if so. Thanks!