What is virtualization?

[Bart Silverstrim]

Default User wrote:

> Wow, thanks to all who replied!  
> 
> I had (tried to) read the aforementioned
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtualization article.  Let's just say it
> was "information rich".  That's why I asked if anyone had a simple
> synopsis. 
> 
> I can tell that a number of people seem to really like virtualization.
> For them, I'm glad that it exists and that they find it (mostly) useful.  
> For me though, I guess I'm just old fashioned.  I think I'll skip the extra 
> overhead and complexity.  If I want to run multiple OSes, I'll just enter 
> them in GRUB and reboot as needed.  

That's fine, depends on your usage scenario.  Virtualization is 
excellent for testing, since you can back up the "hard drive" as a big 
file and take snapshots of system state easily.  The data on your system 
isn't harmed, because the virtualization is kind of a sandbox.

I use it because of the ease of creating and moving systems as virtual 
servers and testboxes.  It's simple to create a testbed or server, and 
make a backup, then if something happens, run it on another system 
without reconfiguring it but still getting services back up.

It's also great because I can make a snapshot of a system, install some 
test or short-term software, and "roll back" to a known good condition 
without a lot of fuss, muss, or reconfiguration.

I also don't lose a partition or lose my running system while trying to 
do something on a "windows-only" application that I need for only an hour.

It doesn't take much to give it a shot.  Just install virtualbox or 
vmware-server (if you don't need sound) and give it a try.  Don't like 
it, uninstall the software and delete the virtual machine.  Much better 
than reversing the effects of a dual-boot situation :-)