What is Digg?91 Comments
- schestowitz, on 10/11/2007, -7/+48You say it's "Free as in free beer", but the more important point is that it's now GPLed, so "Free as in free speech" is a stronger argument, You're in full control.
- aggrazel, on 10/11/2007, -1/+41Hmm. My proxy automatically blocks urls with mangoo in them.
- UnFriendlyFire, on 10/11/2007, -5/+30Damn, I thought VirtualBox was some sort of cyber-sex thing.
- Homunculiheaded, on 10/11/2007, -0/+22Even if you don't care about the full control of the software part of 'as in speech', the other benefit is that 'free as in beer' today can easily become 'pay as in beer' tomorrow. 'as in speech' free software will be free today, and tomorrow, so even if all you care about is how much you have to pay you should be excited about the 'as in speech' part.
- sabach, on 10/11/2007, -1/+23People who use their computers as enhancements to their lifestyle do give a *****. I'd say you really need to speak for yourself, if you don't care then be my guest and just not care.
- trghpy, on 10/11/2007, -8/+29If you don't understand why freedom of speech is important, then you really shouldn't be posting, nor should you be on the Internet.
- feelingfunky, on 10/11/2007, -2/+22to add to wildfire's comment (faster typer than me) ... Virtual PC 2007 IS Free
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx
I may think it is the worst of the bunch, I still have to point it out. - zzzpoohzzz, on 10/11/2007, -0/+17i agree with your proxy, because i wouldnt want any mangoo around me either.
- Sottilde, on 10/11/2007, -0/+14Down already. Duggmirror doesn't seem to have gotten it. This is the best I could find:
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:GUd5MWelRVsJ:www.mangoorange.com/2007/07/05/5-reasons-why-you-should-use-virtualbox-instead-of-virtualpc-or-vmware/+http://www.mangoorange.com/2007/07/05/5-reasons-why-you-should-use-virtualbox-instead-of-virtualpc-or-vmware/&hl=en&client=firefox-a&gl=us&strip=1
This is the first time, I did something “significantly” useful with Linux, blogging. I had many past experience installing Ubuntu and many times I find myself either lost with all the UNIX/Linux commands or there are nothing much I can do as most of my files are on Windows XP.
Now I’m happy to say that, I’m starting to love Ubuntu, especially their font rendering engine. Have to agree with my friend - the font rendering in Ubuntu is much better.
So, the reason why I went back to Ubuntu again, is because I found the right virtual machine software, VirtualBox, that overcome all the limitations I face previously with VirtualPC and VMWare.
The 5 main reasons why you should use VirtualBox:
1. Mouse Integration - Nothing can beat the feeling of not having to search for your mouse when you switch OS and the cursor moving at different speeds.
2. Share Folder - There might be third-party software out there, but this feature comes with VirtualBox. Simple installation and your Windows files are available on Linux. Nothing change except the OS. ;)
3. Super lightweight - Self-explaination. The smallest VM I ever seen.
4. Free as in free beer - According to Andrew Min, VMware has free version but it’s slower compared to it’s professional edition. Thus, the VirtualBox takes the crown. (Needless to say, VirtualPC ain’t free)
5. Easy and Fast - It takes me less than 30 mins to download, install and setup everything.
If you are still considering switching, maybe you should give this VM a try. I felt VirtualBox has everything to overcome the limitations of having multiple OSes. (I love the Linux font rendering engine, it makes blogging much better, do give it a try) - OneAndOnlySnob, on 10/11/2007, -2/+14That went down quick. Is this site running inside VirtualBox or something?
- MrAlphabet, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9Standard with VMWare Workstation which costs money. VMWare Player and VMWare Server (the two free as in beer solutions for the moment) do not have this feature.
- wildfire, on 10/11/2007, -5/+13Microsoft VirtualServer and VMWare GSX Server are also both free and more enterprise-tested.
- slythfox, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8It's GPL... as someone stated. Download it free: http://www.virtualbox.org/
The problem with virtualbox is it isn't as stable as QEMU, the emulator it is based off of. So download both, which are both GPLed. - Ratteler, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7Call me when you get hardware graphics acceleration.
I know. I'm getting dugg down for this... but really... without access to my graphic card WTF do I need a Windows or Mac VM for? Linux does everything NON-GRAPHICAL just as good... if not better than, those other OS's.
If the software DOESN'T use 3D acceleration... it probably works in WINE!
The first VM that gives me OGL2.0 access to my 3D hardware in Linux wins.
Simple. - bruenig, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8I don't think you get the analogy, you can be just as retarded and go "what does GPL have to do with beer, stop being dramatic" There are two kinds of free, stuff which is without cost perhaps beer as is used in the analogy and stuff that is without restriction, see speech. If software doesn't cost you anything it is free as in beer, if the code is made available to you, since that means you are without restriction, you can modify the code and do whatever you like with it, it is free as in speech. See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analogy
- dbr_onix, on 10/11/2007, -1/+81. Mouse Integration - Not sure about VirtualPC, but all the VMWare's have "mouse integration" using the VMWare Tools thing, as does Parallels.
2. Share Folder - Decent enough feature, it's in the more recent versions of Parallels (Which isn't free. Don't think it's in VMWare)
3. Super lightweight - That's more going to be down to the guest OS rather than the software. Even VMWare Workstation (Which has stuff like version control) hardly uses any memory/CPU compared to the virtual-machine itself..
4. Free as in free beer - VMWare Server is free.
5. Easy and Fast - I've used VMWare Workstation which had a normal Windows installer, and everything worked as it should with no fiddling at all. VMWare Server was *slightly* more complicated to setup (Mostly becaues of the seperate viewer application, but it really wasn't any more work). Parallels was pretty much the same, click through installer, launch the application and it works. Ignoring staring at the progress bar, they both took less than a few minutes to setup...
As for 'but the more important point is that it's now GPLed, so "Free as in free speech" is a stronger argument' is a stupid reason to switch software - Unless you can read, understand and modify large, fairly complex C code (And quite possibly Assembly) the fact it's open source will mean more or less nothing to most people.
That said, if your are not used to VMWare Server (for example) VIrtualBox seems like a decent application, but if you're already using something else, there's really no huge improvements VirtualBox has over it. VMWare Server is fairly "mature", and as such will be more stable, and I'll take stability over being able to be utterly confused and scared by VirutalBox's source code
["Disclaimer" : I'm not 'against' open source software, I just don't think the fact something is open-source alone is reason enough to use it.. Unless you can and do modify the source code, of course] - xst4t1kx, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6@mushroom: You have an opinion. Good for you. Every time one of you dimwit's proclaims "no one cares", you end up finding out that people actually do care. Whudathunkit.
- ditoa, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6Ummm
1. Mouse Integration - Nothing can beat the feeling of not having to search for your mouse when you switch OS and the cursor moving at different speeds.
All VMware productions and VirtualPC have mouse integration. I really don't understand what they are saying here?
2. Share Folder - There might be third-party software out there, but this feature comes with VirtualBox. Simple installation and your Windows files are available on Linux. Nothing change except the OS. ;)
Both VMware and VirtualPC have folder sharing (Virtual PC with Windows guest only to be fair).
3. Super lightweight - Self-explaination. The smallest VM I ever seen.
Eh? Guest OS installs are pretty much identical no matter what virtualization application is used.
4. Free as in free beer - According to Andrew Min, VMware has free version but it’s slower compared to it’s professional edition. Thus, the VirtualBox takes the crown. (Needless to say, VirtualPC ain’t free)
VMware Player is free albeit not as good as VMware Workstation. VMware Server is free although it lacks features that VMware Workstation has (such as multiple snapshots). VirtualPC is free and has been for a long while now.
5. Easy and Fast - It takes me less than 30 mins to download, install and setup everything.
VirtualPC took me about 5 minutes to download, install and setup. VMware slightly longer as the download is bigger but nothing close to 30 minutes. - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -1/+71. Mouse Integration - Nothing can beat the feeling of not having to search for your mouse when you switch OS and the cursor moving at different speeds.
I quite like this. I wish VMWare would implement this feature as it makes life SO much nicer.
2. Share Folder - There might be third-party software out there, but this feature comes with VirtualBox. Simple installation and your Windows files are available on Linux. Nothing change except the OS. ;)
Uh, you can do this in VMWare Server...so while it is cool, I wouldn't say it is unique.
3. Super lightweight - Self-explaination. The smallest VM I ever seen.
Can't argue...super light and super fast.
4. Free as in free beer - According to Andrew Min, VMware has free version but it’s slower compared to it’s professional edition. Thus, the VirtualBox takes the crown. (Needless to say, VirtualPC ain’t free)
Gotta agree, but I prefer VMWare for stability and the amount of other features. VirtualBox is pretty unstable and still needs some TLC. In 6 months I'm going to bet people are going to swarm to VirtualBox when they've stabilized it and integrated the a few more features.
5. Easy and Fast - It takes me less than 30 mins to download, install and setup everything.
Ya, but I could say the same about VMWare Server. Honestly, not a big selling point. - wyleyrabbit, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5Where have you been? Microsoft VirtualPC has been free for at least a year now.
- paradexes, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6Buried as inaccurate. If you RTA you will see that this is just a case of Fanboism. It is a nice program but not by any means better than VMware or VPC. Maybe VPC but that is subject to opinion. The article spins to make VB the only one with the following (quoted FTA):
1. Mouse Integration - Nothing can beat the feeling of not having to search for your mouse when you switch OS and the cursor moving at different speeds.
2. Share Folder - There might be third-party software out there, but this feature comes with VirtualBox. Simple installation and your Windows files are available on Linux. Nothing change except the OS. ;)
Which IMO is bs since both VMware server and player have this with tool s installed. I believe VPC also has this feature as well. - mikedoth, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5Had anyone been able to run under Ubuntu, XP from a partition, rather than a image file?
- StringyLow, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5And don't forget Xen Server.
Heavy duty for most of the geeks out there who don't want to pay money. - clickwir, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4For me it's been quite the opposite. My work pc dual boots windows xp and Kubuntu right now. So I run windows in linux and linux in windows, depending which is booted. AND I have VMWare and VirtualBox on each. For me, VirtualBox is lighter and faster than VMWare in both cases. Sure, VMWare has tons of extra options that... I don't need. VB on the other hand has just what I need and really nothing more. It's quite simple and easy, and damn fast. Next VB version should be able to run VMWare images, thus eliminating my need for VMWare anymore. By by licensing fess. Hello speed!
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Mirror: http://www.thatforumplace.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6584
- magus_melchior, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4While your statement is valid, I don't see where he targeted his blog post towards enterprise users...
- ewang, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4So, DOES anyone have a good comparison of VM software that someone contemplating the use of one to run a Linux desktop as part of a migration (eventually) to Linux could read? Along the same line, anyone know of tools that can be used under Ubuntu if you have an MS Smartphone (WinMobile 6) and need what ActiveSync does?
- krism42, on 10/11/2007, -0/+42. Uh no, no you can't do this in Vmware Server. You can do it in Workstation, but not server (unless you're counting samba, in which case you need smacked.)
- l124rd, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5Since all of the comparisons above seem to be "Nyeh, VMWare is better since VMWare qualifies to the items in that list." So, here's a 5 item list that compares the two (albiet in VirtualBox's favor)
1) The free version of VirtualBox supports bridging of USB devices. Even more than that, you can use RDP to connect to VirtualBox and bridge USB devices connected to your remote computer, limiting it not just to the host machine.
2) VirtualBox is a single piece of software that can not only create virtual machines but run them, it does not rely on a client server model (or creating them in a different piece of software so you can use it with the VMWare player)
3) VMWare replaces any ring-0 code so that it will execute properly in ring-3 (usermode). VirtualBox instead tricks ring-0 instructions into running in ring-1 (generally unused) which provides a speed increase since most of the operating system does not have to be rewritten. If an instruction fails running in ring-1, VirtualBox falls back onto the traditional way of doing it (rewriting the instructions)
4) This feature of running the guest OS at near native speeds includes workloads that require quite a bit of disk/network IO (a situation in which VMWare Server suffers a significant performance lost)
5) Most importantly: Most of the code is GPLv3!
Since I know it will come up: Yes, VirtualBox does not support SMP, but... neither does VMWare Player so, there's not much reason to argue it. - konforce, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Reason why not to use it: its networking is bad. I've never been able to set up a VM that can be seen by my local network. (Virtual PC works out of the box as one would expect.) However, it's the only complaint I have.
- EclipseAgent, on 10/11/2007, -2/+5VMWare is a Mature product, people in the enterprise need a stable mature product, and until VirtualBox or XEN are released being fully stable, and at a .version interval, then I don't see masses moving to it.
I myself use VMWare for the Enterprise and have dabbled into both VirtualBox and XEN - overkil6, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Although I haven't read the article (dugg) I started to use VirtualBox with the same environment settings as a VM running OS. I thought the response for host applications, ie: running in my windows environment, was drastically reduced when running VirtualBox comparted to VM. Anyone else notice this?
- gadgetuk, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Yeah, I did the same thing - identical linux virtual machines with the same memory & disk size. When running Vbox both my host machine and guest OS are very slow. VMWare Server isn't.
I hope Vbox continues improving though - I'll still keep trying it. - bruenig, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4To understand free as in speech, it only requires you to get one concept. There is such a thing as programming code, programs are actually written by a person using said code. If you can wrap your mind around that, code that is free as in speech is understandable to even those who rival your ignorance.
- Kershek, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3I agree with you there! A VM with graphics accelleration would take the cake.
- jambarama, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Virtual PC is free, but it is also ties you to Windows. The guy who wrote this sounds like he wants to run Windows in Linux -- that puts Virtual PC out (it does Linux on Windows, or Windows on Windows, but nothing on Linux).
VMWare can do #1, #2, #4, and #5. It isn't as lightweight, but if you really want lightweight look at virtual iron or vmware esx--those run bare metal on the machine (no host OS needed). And if you need lightweight with a host OS, Xen or Kqemu are much lighter than virtual box YMMV.
Virtualbox is a great product, and I always say use what works, but it just doesn't do anything the others don't. Myself, I prefer VMWare and Xen, as they both support Guest OS SMP, whereas neither Virtual PC nor Virtual Box do. - CCmachined, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2BTW: does directx (even directdraw) work uin virtualbox? tried the other day, photoshop works, but none of my games work :( (most only need directdraw not direct3d)
- dwightwilbanks, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3>>Not saying Virtualbox isn't good
I will say its not good. The developers did not take the time/energy/money to get their drivers certifed for windows. I only install software of that type in a virtual machine, which would kinda defeat the purpose. My installation process stoped at that time. - sabor, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Can you run 64-bit VMs on VirtualBox from a 32-bit host OS given that the processor has VT or AMD-V technology?
- starsky51, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3haha.. you must be new here.
- rgautier, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2WINNAR!
- trogdoor, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4And you think that those people are going to be using VMware or VirtualBox any time soon?
- om3ganet, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I've had the same problems. Networking support in VirtualBox IS dodgy, but it does work eventually. Takes a lot more work to enable than it should. In both Windows and Linux when I tried it, I was required to use the NAT method, nothing else worked.
- sancho, on 10/15/2007, -0/+2Free (as in speech) means more than just the user modifying the code. It means that if the original developer takes the product in a direction that doesn't meet the needs of the users, the project can be forked. It means that, if I want to, I can pay someone else to modify the source. It means that I can legally redistribute the product, even if the company no longer supports or offers it. I can [pay someone to] audit the code to make sure that it is not phoning home or doing anything malicious on my host. It means that other people can dissect the code and report on its security.
Free (as in speech) doesn't just mean, and isn't just useful for, modifying code.
Of course, there's also a philosophical element. If I only use free (as in speech) software, and I submit bug reports and participate in testing, then I'm supporting this paradigm. The paradigm itself promotes good software (there's plenty of GPL software on Windows which is as good as or better than competing commercial software.) So preferring open source can still be a good thing. - crossmr, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2not only is this completely inaccurate as pointed out many times, I've found virtualbox to crash on me many times. Running a deb box and a 2003 box, the 2003 box would constantly go "funky" (its the only way I can describe it) you suddenly couldn't interact with it, and if you tried to hit a menu on it, the text would come up as gibberish. Only way to stop it was force the program closed.
Not exactly an awesome feature. - customgamer, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2virtualpc is free.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2"why you should use VirtualBox instead of VMware?"
Because the server version of VMWare need a registration code, ***** that. - clickwir, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3I'm an enterprise user and prefer VirtualBox over VMWare. kthnxbye
- daftman, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Get back to me when I can run Virtual PC on my linux desktop. I would prefer VMWare over Virtual PC or VirtualBox.
Have anyone mention Qemu? - daftman, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2And it's free. You can get it from VMWare site i believe.
-
Show 51 - 91 of 91 discussions
Browsing Digg on your phone just got easier with our enhancements to the 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is