Comments on: VirtualBox USB support

By: Radu

Radu — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:54:50 +0000

That would be awesome indeed. I promise I’ll look into this when I’ll have some free time available, although I’ve quit using Windows for other than browsing the web and editing pretty documents, therefore I am not interested anymore in migrating a physical Windows instance to a virtual one. But if the reader requests, the reader gets.

By: Florin

Florin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:51:05 +0000

How to convert your physical machine into a virtual machine using VMware Converter – can we expect a similar article for vbox anytime soon? I’d very much like to be able to run my windows 7 both as a VM inside the vbox running on kubuntu and boot it directly.

I seem to recall that I’ve read something similar somewhere about this being possible, but I lost the URL.

By: dalaidakkar

dalaidakkar — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:05:38 +0000

nice! thank your very much, worked perfect

By: marcello

marcello — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 08:43:52 +0000

kudos man…exactly the answer I was looking for.
Pretty amazing blog, too [bookmarked -:) ]

By: Radu

Radu — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:29:38 +0000

It really depends on what you are after. If you need to virtualize a desktop environment VirtualBox seems to be the best solution at the moment. On the other hand, if you need to create multiple virtual servers, VMware Server is tailored for exactly this purpose and thus is more optimised regarding remote virtual machine administration. Graphics performance though are affected in VMware.

Of course, the problems of stability involving VMware Server with the newer kernels is something to consider too. But if you use for example a LTS release then you shouldn’t experience any difficulties no matter what product you choose.

It all comes down to the purpose you’re after. If I would need multiple servers running on a powerful physical server VMware would definitely win the chance to do the job. On the other hand, maybe I would try a type 1 hypervisor, like Xen or VMware’s ESXi for this particular layout.

But when I need to test a desktop OS there’s no doubt that I would choose VirtualBox on top of everything else.

By: marcello

marcello — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:11:18 +0000

well I already tried both of them.

I’d like to know your opinion. As you seem quite qualified on the topic…

Virtualbox was a breeze to install.
VMWare was a lot more difficult.
But I remember, in the past, experienced people used to dismiss any other solution but VMWare.
Even Xen was regarded as inferior to VMWare. Maybe things have changed or are percieved differently in the last 2-3 years.

By: Radu

Radu — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:00:12 +0000

Marcello, it seems that Sun is pushing VirtualBox in its VDI infrastructure. It can also be controlled via command line and it also offers some APIs for better handling its functionalities. Also there is a Google Code project that offers a web administration console for it. Check it out.

By: marcello

marcello — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:51:30 +0000

need a development box? Use virtualbox..
need a production enviroment? Use VMWare-Server

Is it still true? Or things have changed (or changing)?

Regards