VirtualBox: InnoTek's virtualization goes open source

Filed under: Windows, Linux, Open Source

VirtualBox: InnoTek's virtualization goes open source

by Jordan Running Jan 15th 2007

Virtualization was big in '06, and it's shaping up to be huge in '07. The first company to make big news in the new year is one we're not so familiar with: Germany's InnoTek. What's the fuss? InnoTek has unexpectedly open sourced its VirtualBox virtualization software. VirtualBox looks like a pretty mature virtualization tool that runs on Windows and Linux and supports Windows (including Vista), Linux, OS/2 Warp, OpenBSD, and FreeBSD as guest operating systems. Like many companies have done, InnoTek has split its product into two editions: An open source version and a "full" version with additional features aimed at enterprise customers. The latter is still free for personal use, but its source is closed. From the screenshots, it looks like VirtualBox has a pretty featureful GUI, which is something I miss with VMware Player.

Tags: innotek, open source, OpenSource, virtualbox, virtualization

Featured Time Waster

Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

I have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

View more Time Wasters