With Linux gaining in desktop markets everyday, you might want to try it too. But leaving the comfort of Windows might be difficult for newbies. With these virtualization softwares, you can now try Linux natively, while running Windows inside a virtual machine for those unsupported applications.
Virtualization
Virtualization today has become a very popular method for testing, running and even consolidating multiple platforms or operating systems on a single host. It's used by students, consumers, offices, large corporations and datacenters to be more productive at minimal costs, sometimes even free.
With virtualization, you can run multiple operating systems on your computer at the same time, allowing you to save time by not rebooting into another OS or having to buy another computer to run it simultaneously. After installing virtualization software on the Host OS, you can then run the software and install/run a multitude of supported operating systems.
With the ability to run multiple operating systems or multiple instances of the same operating system, hardware can be consolidated. This saves costs of computers/servers, electricity and maintenance. Also, with the advances in software today, it is very easy to manage them, and even a relative newbie can install, configure, setup and run a VM instance in minutes. In this article, we take a look at virtualization with Linux as the Host OS.
VirtualBox
VirtualBox is a multi-platform virtualization software that supports Linux, Mac OSX, Windows XP/Vista/7 and Solaris as Host Operating Systems. Originally developed by innotek and later bought by Sun, VirtualBox is a free virtualization solution that can run various Guest Operating Systems like BSD, Linux, OS/2, Windows, Solaris and a few others.
Although not as well-known as VMWare, it offers pretty much the same functionality for free. The new versions support enhanced support for 3D acceleration in guest operating systems, symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) functionality in guests, as well as upto 16GB of RAM per virtual machine. Another great aspect of VirtualBox is that it is open-source (although certain parts of the code aren't) thus you can expect the addition of features and improved functionality if Sun ever decides to stop supporting this virtualization platform.
You can try out VirtualBox by downloading it here (download it for the OS you are running right now, not the OS you want to run inside the VM.) After installation, a wizard will be opened which will guide you through the steps of creating a virtual machine for your chosen guest OS.
After installation/setup of the guest OS, it is recommended to install the bundled Guest Additions inside the guest OS. These will give you enhanced functionality such as higher-resolution display, video acceleration, folder sharing and seamless windows.
