Virtualisation Programs

rctneil · 19 Mar 2009 at 21:50

What alternatives are there to Microsoft Virtual PC?

I need one that can accept a 64bit Guest

JonJ678 · 19 Mar 2009 at 22:30

Virtualbox is what you want. It'll run a 64 bit guest on a 32 bit operating system if you so wish.

What it sadly will not do (for me at least) is run a 32 bit guest and a 64 bit guest at the same time, though you can have as many of one type as you wish.

VMware is a solid alternative, but I've had far more success with virtualbox. Note that complex 3D work inside a virtual machine is unlikely to be very successful at present, though progress is being made in this.

HEADRAT · 20 Mar 2009 at 09:20

I use Vista X64 in Vmware WorkStation, I have 8GB of memory in my machine so I give the guest 4GB, seems to work great

Burnsy2023 · 20 Mar 2009 at 11:18

So in summary there are three main Type 2 Hypervisors: Virtual PC, VMware (Workstation or Server) and Virtualbox.

Ghost-Reaper · 20 Mar 2009 at 11:23

Virtual Pc is best for windows guest OS's, I've had trouble with linux on it.
Virtual box is suppose to be good for linux though it doesn't want to work on my system for some reason (sits in taskmanager but no window or anything loads)

Burnsy2023 · 20 Mar 2009 at 11:27

Ghost-Reaper said:
Virtual Pc is best for windows guest OS's, I've had trouble with linux on it.
Virtual box is suppose to be good for linux though it doesn't want to work on my system for some reason (sits in taskmanager but no window or anything loads)

I'd disagree with VPC, I don't like it at all, but I didn't realise they had a Linux version :confused:

Rainmaker · 20 Mar 2009 at 12:33

Ghost-Reaper said:
Virtual Pc is best for windows guest OS's, I've had trouble with linux on it.

Burnsy2023 said:
I'd disagree with VPC, I don't like it at all, but I didn't realise they had a Linux version

I think he's saying that it's best to stick to Windows-only guests on VPC, as it runs Linux guests very poorly. I can +1 that myself. It doesn't have a Linux version that I know of, and definitely struggles running anything other than Windows VMs. VirtualBox for me.

Burnsy2023 · 20 Mar 2009 at 12:46

I'm an avid fan of VMWare and I've never had an issue running Windows/Luinux or Solaris on it.

VPC is crap.

malachi · 20 Mar 2009 at 12:59

I use VMWare on my server as Virtual PC does work correctly on Windows Server 2008 and VMWare so much quicker than Virtual PC when installing OS's

Ghost-Reaper · 20 Mar 2009 at 14:28

Rainmaker said:
I think he's saying that it's best to stick to Windows-only guests on VPC, as it runs Linux guests very poorly. I can +1 that myself. It doesn't have a Linux version that I know of, and definitely struggles running anything other than Windows VMs. VirtualBox for me.

Yeah thats what I meant

Have used VMware also, dunno if it was me but whatever I did to it had it screwing up the auto play options. (yeah I did untick the option in settings)

LizardKing · 20 Mar 2009 at 14:46

Vmware all the way.
never had any issues with any host/guest combination!

malef!c · 20 Mar 2009 at 17:54

On my laptop I am using Virtualbox and on a server I use ESXi (the freebie one

)

theheyes · 20 Mar 2009 at 18:40

VMWare Server 1.x.

VMware Server 2.x almost made me throw a laptop out the window.

IAmATeaf · 20 Mar 2009 at 19:20

I use a combination of VMWare Workstation 5.x, VMWare Server 1 and 2 and XenServer for hosting my VMs. Tried using the Citrix equivalent version of XenServer on a host but it would somehow screw itself after a week or 2 and I found it very difficult to recover so dumped it.