VirtualBox versus VMWare

[Chris G]

On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 04:21:18PM +0200, Kristian Rink wrote:
> 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... :)

OK, thanks for the feedback.

I use VMWare Server at work (cheapskates!) and VMWare Workstation at
home. I don't use the shared folders facility in VMWare Workstation, I
just use Samba.  I do use USB 2.0 though, an Epson scanner, and that's
one of the reasons I upgraded to 6.x from 5.x.

-- 
Chris Green