during the installation I choose a guest operating system type (Window/Linux/Other + version). What is the difference it makes? The hint: "Identifying the guest operating system here allows the wizard to provide the appropriate defaults for the operating system installation." Is it some CPU optimizations or features which are enabled/disabled or it is only to give a right choice for vmware tools, CPU, RAM, etc.?
As far as I know, the list of operating systems is presets of other settings. It changes the initial amount of RAM, the initial virtual disk size, APIC / ACPI settings, SATA/IDE layout, etc. For example, older operating systems do not support SATA. Or newer operating systems require/recommend at least 1 GB. Etc.
The preset does not lock you into anything; it just sets reasonable defaults.
These options determine the default disk size, memory, CPU, etc for the VM. The virtual hardare is also chosen based off this choice. For example, certain virtual NICs perform better on certain OSes
In addition to the above, when you go to install VMware Tools in the guest, it determines what iso to attach to the guest with the appropriate tools installer for that guest OS.
