I've upgraded my vmplayer installation, and noticed that the rpm was going oversized, 65Mb!

Damn, java inside ? No, only the unavailibility to linux to provide a stable api for the kernel interface. Most of the files in the rpm (or the tar.gz) are modules for distribution X version Y

Where is the fault ? linus not providing a stable api, or vmware writing drivers too close to the kernel ? At least, with current released kernel 2.6.22, none of the module built works, and don't compile too. Here the url to grab the latest patch to have a working network in vmware