VirtualBox versus VMWare

[Kristian Rink]

Am Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:11:46 +0100
schrieb Chris G <cl at isbd.net>:

> What are the relative pluses and minuses of VirtualBox and VMWare in
> your opinion?  I use VMWare Workstation at the moment to run Windows
> XP on a Linux system.  What would I gain and what would I lose if I
> movesd to VirtualBox?  (I'd gain a bit of money at least!)

If you paid for VMWare workstation, there's probably no point in doing
so. :) Personally, I switched from VMWare Server
(free-as-in-free-beer) to VirtualBox OSE for a bunch of reasons:

- It's open-source and available via the repositories in an easy
manner. Modules come precompiled so I don't need to mess with building
them manually as I have to do for VMWare Server.

- The "seamless" mode is pretty cool in times of need (having a Windows
XP taskbar just above my XFCE one really tends to surprise some
people...).

- Not needing a server setup on my notebook, the management procedure
in VirtualBox is easier than in VMWare Server as there's no distinction
between a "virtual machine server" and a "management console" (which
also might not be there talking about VMWare Workstation).

- They say that VMWare Server does not support Shared Folders whereas
VirtualBox does. Never used it, though. :)

As you were talking about VMWare Workstation however, your mileage
definitely might vary here... :)
Cheers,
Kristian


-- 
Kristian Rink * http://zimmer428.net * http://flickr.com/photos/z428/
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"One dreaming alone, it will be only a dream; many dreaming together
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