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Jul
05
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This is the first time, I did something "significantly" useful with Linux, blogging. I had many past experience installing Ubuntu and many times I find myself either lost with all the UNIX/Linux commands or there are nothing much I can do as most of my files are on Windows XP.
Now I'm happy to say that, I'm starting to love Ubuntu, especially their font rendering engine. Have to agree with my friend - the font rendering in Ubuntu is much better.
So, the reason why I went back to Ubuntu again, is because I found the right virtual machine software, VirtualBox, that overcome all the limitations I face previously with VirtualPC and VMWare.
The 5 main reasons why you should use VirtualBox:
- Mouse Integration - Nothing can beat the feeling of not having to search for your mouse when you switch OS and the cursor moving at different speeds.
- Share Folder - There might be third-party software out there, but this feature comes with VirtualBox. Simple installation and your Windows files are available on Linux. Nothing change except the OS.
- Super lightweight - Self-explaination. The smallest VM I ever seen.
- Free as in free beer - According to Andrew Min, VMware has free version but it's slower compared to it's professional edition. Thus, the VirtualBox takes the crown. (Needless to say, VirtualPC ain't free, my mistake. it's free)
- Easy and Fast - It takes me less than 30 mins to download, install and setup everything.
If you are still considering switching, maybe you should give this VM a try. I felt VirtualBox has everything to overcome the limitations of having multiple OSes. (I love the Linux font rendering engine, it makes blogging much better, do give it a try)
Update: This is merely my experience and my opinion after using both VMware and VirtualBox. Nonetheless, I acknowledge the lack of technical comparison here. So feel free to give it a try and do your own comparisons. Cheers.
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58 Responses to “5 reasons why you should use VirtualBox, instead of VirtualPC or VMware”
Pages: [6] 5 4 3 2 1 » Show All
Pages: [6] 5 4 3 2 1 » Show All
June 24th, 2009 at 5:38 am
I am giving VirtualBox a try. I have using Virtual PC since 2006 without any problems except when I ventured to use Linux. It should be pointed out that Linux will run acceptably on Virtual PC but only with a bit of maintenance, however it runs much slower and is unsupported for file sharing etc. VM Additions for Linux are available, but only with MS Virtual Server 2005 (free), which is more resource intensive and not suited to my needs right now.
While VMWare server is clearly far more feature-rich that VPC or VB, it is not suited for desktop casual use. Workstation was impressive though I found it notably slower than Virtual PC hosting Windows Server 2003 as a VM, so that a few years ago I found myself testing complex network management server running on several Windows 2003 servers in Virtual PC instead!
May 7th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
There is a VERY nice feature about Virtual PC that I like, and that it the ability to drag and drop files from the host OS onto the guest OS. I used VM’s for testing software all the time and to attempt to live without this capability or have to setup a network share for it just seems like a hassle.
I know it sounds petty, but no more so than some of the other comments posted here. Oh well, just my 2 cents.
May 2nd, 2009 at 4:01 am
Nice article
January 14th, 2009 at 6:28 am
You lost me on this blog article dude… Virtual PC has all the features you mention except maybe “lightweight” whatever that means… VPC seems pretty lightweight to me. So, I’m thinking this is just advocacy rather than useful information but please feel free to correct me.
January 7th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
VirtualBox causes frequent BlueScreen of deaths, over and over and over for me, VirtualPC is junk, it miscalculates data all the time and has many bugs. If you schedule a task for rebooting the system every 2 hours in VirtualPC, it reboots WAY before 2 hours (maybe instantly or about 5 minutes) it’s just useless. I’m going to try VMWare next. I hope theirs is decent.
December 4th, 2008 at 4:57 am
1. Mouse Integration - Nothing can beat the feeling of not having to search for your mouse when you switch OS and the cursor moving at different speeds.
- Every VMs has this feature once you installed the guest additions
2. Share Folder - There might be third-party software out there, but this feature comes with VirtualBox. Simple installation and your Windows files are available on Linux. Nothing change except the OS.
- VirtualPC 2007 has the same feature as well
3. Super lightweight - Self-explaination. The smallest VM I ever seen.
- Yes, this is the best part of VirtualBox
Comparing the free VMs, if you hosted it in Linux undoubtedly VirtualBox is the best but that is not the case if it’s in Windows. Whenever you upgraded your VirtualBox, chances for your guest image to get corrupted is high (ONLY in Windows)
Another nice feature in VirtualBox is the USB support (VMWare has this capability as well).
Bridging the network is a bit complicated for VirtualBox whether it’s in Linux or Windows (VMWare and VirtualPC won this part).
In the end, it doesn’t matter what we use as long as it serve the purpose to finish our jobs
December 1st, 2008 at 9:11 pm
VirtualBox makes it impossible to share your network IP address with the Virtual Machine. In VirtualPC you get a 192.168.1.x IP but not VirtualBox you get some off the wall 10.x.x.x Ip address.
Also, I only have XP64 and it will not load it. I don’t get it, you download VirtualBox for AMD 64 but it can’t install a 64Bit Os. what the heck is the point of this? useless.
October 23rd, 2008 at 10:58 am
[...]VirtualBox free (FOSS) edition has some serious limitations. I’ve listed what you get in the closed ie what is missing from the FOSS version: [...]
Note that both versions are free, just not both open source . (albeit the first one with some restrictions)