Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Freeware, Open Source
Lee's Favorite Apps: VirtualBox
by Lee Mathews Oct 9th 2008 at 6:00PM
On a single XP Pro desktop, I've got Windows 98, 2000, Vista, Server 2003, and Ubuntu virtual machines at the ready. Giant hard drives are cheap, ram is cheap, and my CPU has plenty of juice to do a little virtualization.
I find VirtualBox a little less confusing and just about as powerful as VMWare. It has all the functionality I'm looking for anyways, and it's totally free. It would be nice if the SATA controller and RDP support were included in the Open Source edition, but that's not problematic since I'm not using VirtualBox for enterprise-grade situations.
Because VirtualBox operating system installs are damn near as responsive as your real OS, it's an awesome way to fix one giant issue with some new laptops. Several companies don't bother with XP drivers on some of their laptop models which can make downgrading a royal pain in the ass. Leave Vista in place, decrapify it, and then do your XP install in a virtual machine.
No driver issues to worry about, and all you've really got to teach someone is how to launch VirtualBox, start the machine, and how to use the hotkeys. It amounts to about 5 lines of instructions, and I've guided some pretty technologically challenged individuals through it without any trouble.
I also love that it's open source, modular, cross-platform, and that Sun gets a little loose on their screenshots page, declaring that "Damn Small Linux runs damn well" in VirtualBox.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
RIFRAF said 6:20PM on 10-09-2008
Umm, VMWare Server Edition is free and no driver issues at all. Plus a great community for free techinal info and support.
Reply
RIFRAF said 6:26PM on 10-09-2008
Oh and Citrix Zen Starter Editiion is pretty clean too. On both VMSvr and ZEN I've ran tons of Linux distro's and even OSX without any limitations.
Lee Mathews said 6:27PM on 10-09-2008
Do they offer native 64-bit versions? Curious to know, but no time to Google!
RIFRAF said 6:35PM on 10-09-2008
yes on both. Correction though, Xen Starter Edition is not windows based, it's a full kernel install. Nice thing about it is that it's very easy to install and supports SATA and IDE drives while VMWare's ESXi does not.
Lee Mathews said 6:35PM on 10-09-2008
Awesome...Thanks for the tip, will have to check Citrix out!
Qaiser Adams said 9:03PM on 10-09-2008
Also, checkout MojoPac which virtualises another XP instance on your XP (vista soon i hear) - not as comprehensive but very interesting especially as they do a portable version so that you can take your own XP machine around with you on a flashdrive..
Q
Reply
dave said 10:23PM on 10-09-2008
Quick clarification on the article...
Are you saying that some companies buy Vista laptops, and instead of manually downgrading them they have the user run XP in a virtual machine?
I assume this is done when the laptop can not just be purchased downgraded? Trying to understand why you'd go through the hassle.
Reply
Lee Mathews said 10:25PM on 10-09-2008
Not all new laptops have XP drivers available, and they're a pain in the butt to get working with 3rd party drivers. Shut off unwanted Vista services, themes, etc, install virtualbox, and the user gets a serviceable XP install that performs very well - and no driver issues.
mike said 5:03PM on 10-10-2008
I think to be legal you'd need to buy a full retail copy of Windows XP to do this.
Jash Sayani said 8:42AM on 10-10-2008
Does it support Mac OS (I mean installing OS X on Virtual machine) ?
I have Leopard on my Mac but would like to run the SnowLeopard developer preview on the virtual machine....
Reply
Lee Mathews said 8:42AM on 10-10-2008
It's been done, Jash, but I've not had any luck myself. Keep in mind, I was trying to do it on a Windows VB install. ;-)
Jash Sayani said 2:55PM on 10-10-2008
Thanks a lot for your reply.
Well, It would be great if I could run Leopard on my Notebook!!
I'll try a good Leopard distro and install as FreeBSD install in my Christmas holidays... Will let you know if I can run it on VM.....
Ken said 10:25AM on 10-10-2008
Anyone have any experience running VMWare, VirtualBox, or Citrix Zen on Server 2008 x64? I'm building a 16GB system today and I don't want all my linux and window virtual OS to work. I will be running both 32 & 64bit virtual OSs
I've tried to run VMware 1.7 on my Vista x64 6GB and I wouldn't start properly. So I uninstalled it and tried virtual box. I tried to run backtrack3 Linux distro and a few boot CDs and the OS would crash or keep restarting. Anyone have any idea on that?
Reply
Peter said 8:02AM on 10-11-2008
Ken - If you're running on 64 bit Server 2008, why not use Hyper-V? It supports 32 and 64 bit hosts, both Linux and Windows. And it's now free.
RIFRAF said 3:03PM on 10-11-2008
If you have 2008, HyperV is the way to go.
Jimbo said 3:18PM on 10-10-2008
Maybe someone can clarify something for me since I am a total noob. My wife goes into Circuit City and by the lastest and greatest laptop, brings it home and I turn it on to set it up and it's got Vista 64 on it. Now she can't print because we have a Dell printer that isn't supported. Calling Dell support, they tell her that there isn't an updated driver for Vista 64 yet and probably won't be until the spring.
1) Will using this solve the problem?
2) Do I need a XP cd with a key?
I really don't want to go out and buy a new printer... especially when it's something as easy as a driver issue.
Reply
Lee Mathews said 3:20PM on 10-10-2008
Absolutely. You'll still have Vista x64 in the background, but you can install XP in Virtual Box, with a license, of course ;-)
You'd probably be better off finding XP drivers and downgrading your machine though.
Peter said 8:03AM on 10-11-2008
Jimbo - A better option than going back to XP is switching to 32-bit Vista. Return the machine and get one with 32-bit Vista. There are almost certainly 32-bit drivers out there that will work with Vista.
RIFRAF said 3:09PM on 10-11-2008
If you want to keep the printer around and use it. You're best bet is to create an XP VM and run the old printer through there. You might be able to setup a printer share in the xp vm and share it off to you vista, but you'll still may have problems with drivers. The other issue that may be a problem is your printer/usb port compatibility with whatever VM software you use. Some VM software have issues connecting to those type of devices. VMServer is hit or miss, I'm not sure on VBox.
And yes, you will need a key for XP.
RIFRAF said 3:04PM on 10-11-2008
If you have 2008, HyperV is the way to go.
Reply