VM /ETC

Innotek VirtualBox is a free, open-source alternative to VMware workstation. Aquired by Sun Microsystems earlier this year, VirtualBox has quickly become one of the leading developer platforms for the desktop with current features that rival even VMware’s latest version 6.5 currently in beta testing. I have used VirtualBox in the past, but because I had not used it in over almost over a year I was not aware of the latest features in the most recent releases. The feature that specifically caught my attention was the seamless window integration of Microsoft Windows virtual machines. Like VMware Workstation and Fusion’s Unity feature, VirtualBox allows Windows applications in the VM to pop out of the VM session making it available from the host operating system’s desktop.

Quoting from Sun’s announcement:

“VirtualBox enables desktop or laptop PCs running the Windows, Linux, Mac or Solaris operating systems to run multiple, different operating systems side-by-side, switching between them with just a click of the mouse. This allows software developers to more easily build multi-tier or cross-platform applications, or power-users to take advantage of applications that may not be available for their base operating system of choice.”

“VirtualBox is open source, and can be freely downloaded without the hassle of payment or frustrating license keys at VirtualBox.org or openxvm.org. The download is less than 20 megabytes and the software is easily installed on any modern, x86 architecture laptop or desktop system running Windows, Linux, Mac and Solaris operating systems, in just minutes. Supported guest operating systems include all versions of Windows from 3.1 to Vista, Linux 2.2, 2.4 and 2.6 kernels, Solaris x86, OS/2, Netware and DOS.”

A list of VirtualBox tested VM operating systems can be found on VirtualBox.org.

Seamless integration

I found the first 2 screenshots to the right of the seamless windows integration in action from the post VirtualBox 1.5 released with seamless Windows integration on liquidat.wordpress.com. Although these first 2 screenshots appear to have cropped out the Ubuntu panels, the third screenshot taken from the VirtualBox Users Manual illustrates the Windows taskbar will always appear on the host’s desktop as well.

More from the Users Manual about Seamless Windows:

“Starting with version 1.5, VirtualBox adds support for “seamless windows”. Presently, this feature is limited to Windows guests with the Guest Additions installed. After seamless windows are enabled (see below), VirtualBox suppresses the display of the Desktop background of your Windows guest, allowing you to run the windows of your guest operating system seamlessly next to the windows of your host”

“To enable seamless mode, after starting the virtual machine, press the Host key (normally the right control key) together with “L”. This will enlarge the size of the VM’s display to the size of your host screen and mask out the guest operating system’s background. To go back to the “normal” VM display (i.e. to disable seamless windows), press the Host key and “L” again.”

Other Features

The other features of VirtualBox that make it a solid VMware Workstation alternative are:

• Control VMs from the GUI or the command line
• comprehensive software development kit (SDK)
• Runs on all Windows 2000 and all versions after as well as all major Linux distributions. Support for 64 bit Windows and Linux host operating systems
• Guest additions for Windows and Linux VMs (the equivalent of vmtools)
• Multiple snapshots and ability to revert to any snapshot
• VRDP guest access – VirtualBox Remote Desktop Access is a built in server that provides high speed control of both Windows and Linux VMs. Also includes remote USB support.
• Shared folders between the host and guest VMs
• Dynamically expanding or fixed sized virtual disks
• Bridged, NAT, and internal only guest networking
• Supports VMDK files – import .vmdk files with the Virtual Disk Manager. Snapshots not supported with .vmdk files
• Guest hardware support for:
  • ACPI
  • I/O APIC
  • USB Device
  • Multi-screen resolution
  • built in iSCSI support – access iSCSI storage as a local partition to the VM without installing iSCSI initiators in the guest OS.
  • PXE network boot

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