Tue, 2008-05-06 14:16
I came across another virtualisation tool the other day, Virtual Box. On May 2nd they released version 1.6, which adds OSX and Solaris to the list of support host OS (which already includes Windows and several other *nix flavours). Like other workstation VM apps it can run just about any x86 OS as a guest. Its free, which is particularly handy for Mac users (for whom the other choices, VMWare Fusion and Parallels aren't).
I took the OSX version for a quick spin. Configuration and setup is neater than Fusion. Many more of the settings are configurable in the GUI, unlike Fusion where you may have to edit the text file directly. It installed and ran an XP Pro VM without any real problems. One crash after completing the first round of updates. But who knows, that could have been a legitimate windows crash! OSX version has limited networking choices (other versions seem to have the full gamut of NAT, bridged & internal).
I guess I (or someone) should do a full article on using VMs for x-platform development and testing (someday!).
Tue, 2008-05-06 15:05
#1
Thanks for the heads up
Thanks for the heads up Chris. I'll install and run it tomorrow.
I'm a big fan of virtualisation, and find I'm using it more and more these days. I've dispensed with my laptop entirely and simply carry a portable hardrive with my virtual machines stored on it. Plug it in and I have my standard operating environments up and running within minutes.
Also great for testing new software releases or new os. Try out the package and if you don't like it, close the virtual machine without committing changes. No muss, no fuss.
I'm currently experimenting with bare metal virtualisation (esx). Amazing, but expensive. Lucky I have an offsite backup fpom work 
. I have also done some testing with M$ hyper-V in server 2k8 - apparently it will be a central feature in Vienna (Windows 7).
Virtualisation will play a big part in the future of IT I believe.
Tue, 2008-05-06 21:37
#2
I gave Virtual Box a run a
I gave Virtual Box a run a while ago when I was taking a look at Linux VMs. Haven't done much with it since then though.