01.17.07
VirtualBox released as Open Source
I had never even heard of VirtualBox before they went Open Source. I downloaded and installed the Windows version to have a look. It’s actually pretty nice. It’s a bit on the unpolished side, but it has some potential. The performance is actually close to VMware or Parallels. It lacks the bells and whistles that VMware and Parallels include with their product, but it’s free. I was very suprised to see the VM perform better without Vx-t enabled. This product has a lot of promise for the future, and I’ll be keeping tabs on their development.
Installation was fairly straightforward, as was creating and installing a new virtual machine. The list of supported guest OSes is a bit short but they have the basics covered. Manually creating an iso to mount to a Vista machine to install drivers for the NIC was a bit unorthodox, but I managed. They really should offer a mini-iso of the drivers from their page, rather than forcing you to create it yourself, but I can’t complain, it’s free. The guest OS runs very well, and I didn’t hit any major snags on Vista, XP, or Ubuntu. The interface is easy to use, and reminds me a bit of the VMware Server Console. VirtualBox isn’t quite up to my current standards yet, but I’m sure now that it’s Open Source, many more people will add to it. Being able to see the internal workings of the code as well as the finished product is going to accelerate virtualization across the board. This product could end up being a VMware killer if enough people decide to jump on board and make it truly great…