Spec me some free virtual machine software

MikeHunt79 · 5 Jul 2007 at 22:06

I'm wanting to tinker with some software, and there are quite a few of these apps out there. Virtualbox, vmware, etc.

Which one is the best and free? I don't really want to end up going thru 3 or 4 of these proggies before I find the best or a good one.

MarcLister · 5 Jul 2007 at 22:31

VirtualBox is good. Also Microsoft's 2007 version of VirtualPC is also quite good. I've used both for testing my nLite ISOs.

MikeHunt79 · 5 Jul 2007 at 22:34

I'm giving VirtualBox a spin right now....

Seems nice, just waiting for XP to install...

MarcLister · 5 Jul 2007 at 22:35

Goodo. You should be OK from here on in.

And btw thanks for the dieting advice.

marc2003 · 5 Jul 2007 at 22:38

ew. virtual pc sucks....

guest operating systems run really slow. well at least they do on my pc....

for ease of use....

virtualbox if all you need is internet access for the virtual machine.

vmware server if you want to network multiple virtual machines together. only snag is you have to fill in a form to get your free reg key. doesn't take long though.

you can configure virtual box machines to speak to each other but that requires command line jiggery pokery and creating bridged connections on your host pc - easy enough but vmware does it all out the box via the gui.

edit: seems i was far too slow. good choice with virtualbox anyway. :cool:

Jimmy1983 · 5 Jul 2007 at 22:47

Whats the deal with VM's? Would I be able to install ubuntu on vista using a VM? Why do you use them?

MarcLister · 5 Jul 2007 at 22:48

Jimmy1983 said:
Whats the deal with VM's? Would I be able to install ubuntu on vista using a VM? Why do you use them?

Well if you downloaded an ISO you could run the ISO and effectively or should I say "virtually" install Linux yes.

I think business like to use virtualisation. Not sure why though.

Jimmy1983 · 5 Jul 2007 at 22:52

MarcLister said:
Well if you downloaded an ISO you could run the ISO and effectively or should I say "virtually" install Linux yes.

I think business like to use virtualisation. Not sure why though.

Ive got the cd off ubuntu. How does it work then?

MarcLister · 5 Jul 2007 at 22:53

Jimmy1983 said:
Ive got the cd off ubuntu. How does it work then?

Ah you need either the ISO off the Ubuntu site OR use something like ImgBurn to make an image of the CD in ISO format. Then you can run the ISO in VirtualBox or the like.

marc2003 · 5 Jul 2007 at 23:03

well you can use a phyiscal cd/dvd in vmware/virtualbox. but you're much better off using an iso file as the file copy process is so much quicker when running setup of your guest os. just add the file like this.....

allllec · 5 Jul 2007 at 23:45

Jimmy1983 said:
Why do you use them?

personally all my servers are virtual.

means i can remote into server 1. and control server 2 and 3 right down to the bios if needs be. also becuase there is nothing on the host operating system it is stable. and also you can tighten security right up on the machine without causing too many headaches.

very hand

MikeHunt79 · 5 Jul 2007 at 23:59

VirtualBox is great! The only thing I didn't figure out was how to share files from the host OS, but that ISO file thing worked a treat tho... I really need to upgrade my ram as my system is now on it's knee's. :eek:

Also, is there any way of getting copy/paste to work between VM's?

bledd · 6 Jul 2007 at 00:33

vmware is the easiest to manage when you're testing a whole virtual network (and has most features i think)

but virtualbox is by far the fastest for testing single installs, awesome program