[ubuntu-za] Virtualization on Ubuntu

[Johan Mynhardt]

On 10/06/2009 16:19, Lee Sharp wrote:
> Wikus Cornelius wrote:
>> Greetings,
>>
>> I want to use some virtualization environment at home to evaluate and
>> test differed operating systems (windows and different Linux
>> distributions). I have done some googleing on Xen, VirtualBox and Kvm,
>> but I would like some advice and recommendations from people with
>> experience on the mailing list. My criteria is ease of use, network
>> support a must and usb support a plus. I am probably not going to run
>> any processing intensive applications. We are using Vmware at work so if
>> I can find one that can import Vmware images easily it will be an
>> advantage. I have installed Vmware player, but it is a bit limited. I
>> will be using Ubuntu for the host OS.
>
> Virtualbox - Not a real graphics card or sound card.  This can mean
> driver issues on some guest OS installs.
>
> Xen - Not a good "as needed" solution.
>
> KVM - Good, but needs the correct CPU.  It does have real graphics and
> sound cards emulated.
>
> QEMU - Very good, portable, can work on any CPU, and has real graphics
> and sound cards emulated.  Not as fast as KVM.
>
> 			Lee
>

I'm quite new in the exploration of virtualization, but my 2c's worth:

I tried VirtualBox and QEMU:

VirtualBox is really easy as Walter said, however, I had some troubles 
when I tried to switch ISO's (I tried out FreeBSD 6.2, having 2 CD's).

I then tried QEMU and it is a bit more CLI oriented, but it worked 
better in the sense of disk-switching when needed(installation mode) and 
I also noticed that for some reason my CPU usage was a lot less than 
with VirtualBox.

-- 
Johan Mynhardt
Free State Linux Users Group

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