VMWare vs. VirtualBox on Ubuntu?

[neu5eeCh]

I noticed in the favorite apps thread, that A-Star had installed VMWare (for his wife) rather than VirtualBox (to run windows). Now that I'm (marginally) in the advanced beginner stage, I thought I might try burning up the minutes of my life trying out one or the other. :roll:

Just wondering if anyone has preferences? (I'll probably try installing XP, if it matters.)

[tjwoosta]

I noticed in the favorite apps thread, that A-Star had installed VMWare (for his wife) rather than VirtualBox (to run windows). Now that I'm (marginally) in the advanced beginner stage, I thought I might try burning up the minutes of my life trying out one or the other. :roll:

Just wondering if anyone has preferences? (I'll probably try installing XP, if it matters.)

Virtualbox should suit you just fine, its free and its very easy to use. IMO VMWare is actually better, but Im pretty sure its not free.

[new_tolinux]

Virtualbox should suit you just fine, its free and its very easy to use. IMO VMWare is actually better, but Im pretty sure its not free.
VMware server is free, although you'll have to register a free account in order to get your free serial number.

What to use mostly depends on your needs. I've had XP on the non-open-source variant of VirtualBox, and I've got XP on VMware server.
It just works fine, both do.

I've got one very old and yet very uncommon program that doesn't run on VirtualBox, and that was the main reason to try VMware server. Yet I know that I can connect to my VMware machine remote, where VirtualBox doesn't allow that, it's an extra reason to stick with VMware. Only point of trouble sometimes is the firefox client add-on not working well in Linux (especially after suspending the guest OS), but that's not a real problem to me because my desktop is (still) Windows 7.

If it wasn't for remote access and that particular program I really would stick to VirtualBox, because it don't need any browser add-on, I can start it when I need to and it works fine.

[Old_Grey_Wolf]

VMware does have some advantages if your processor supports either AMD-V or Intel VT-x. I have quit a few computers at home and only one of them supports the hardware virtualization extensions.

There are other choices like KVM and Xen.

For most home use I find that either VMware or VirtualBox work well. Some of the VMware products are free; however, some are not. There are enough free VMware products that you can use it for what most people need at home.

[stmiller]

virtualbox is awesome. Open source FTW! They just released version 3.2.

You can add it with their repository and get updates through regular Ubuntu software updates.

[NightwishFan]

I use Virtualbox, the open source edition works great. Installing Ubuntu Warty inside it right now.