Some vmware folks recommend against linux as host for vmware. Unless it's 64-bit linux:
"Using Linux only makes sense on 64 bit Hosts - on 32 bit hosts Windows LiveCDs outperform Linux based ones by a wide margin. On my site you find a ready to use older Slax with Workstation 6.0.2 - but
it performs poor because all 32 bit Linux must use a mainmem-file which is not necessary on Windows and Linux 64 (using Workstation 7)"
http://communities.vmware.com/message/1531436Is TC available in 64-bit?