Oracle VM VirtualBox

Site: https://www.virtualbox.org/
Purpose: Virtualization
Country: USA
Price: Freeware
OpenSource:No

I've used virtualization for years. Until recently, I've been using VMWare workstation. But I lost confidence when a bug that's been there for years, showed up on me. Basically, VMs would stop launching, requiring me to change their name and move/copy the VM. Then it would work for a few startups until it showed up again. Looks like it's bug that's been there, but the idiots at VMWare couldn't solve it.

So I changed my VM's to Oracle's VM VirtualBox. Like VMWware, it provides virtualization of an entire OS, so I use it to run older versions of Windows, because the idiots of my ISP (MEO) disabled my remote TV in Windows 10, forcing me to use their cretin W10 app, which lacks a mandatory thing for me: "screen recording" ! So, I use Windows 7, and I record screens from W10. Genious isn't it ?

I also use Linux VMs because I want to keep up with other OS'es, their look&feel. At one time I even downloaded and used a OS/X VM for a while..Snow Leopard, and it worked fine.

In general, virtualization is great when you want to isolate and test a Software, or if you thing a Software is virused and you want to get something out of it when it runs, without the danger of infecting your main machine. Very well, let it infect your VM and then...just delete it.

There are few cumbersome things with Virtualbox, one being it's way of dealing with USB devices. Sometimes you have to set things manually in the Device Filters, install some drivers like USB 3.0, and stuff. But generally, it works. I can even make my old Webcam (not running in Windows 10 anymore) workable in Windows 7 or Linux. by forwarding the USB device to the VM guest, instead of the host.

Things that work great in Virtualbox VM's (Windows and Linux, the ones I use):

• Share folders, you just set a folder on your host and both your host and your guest OS will access the files inside that folder. Trivial on Windows, a little less trivial on Linux but works too.
• Copy/paste. Yes, you can copy a block of text between your guest and OS.
• Drag&Drop. Works good between Windows, you drab a file/folder from the source OS and drop it on the destination OS.
• Network, Audio, that works fine too.
• 3D...something still to check.
• VM compatibility: VMDK files are compatible between several virtualization tools. At least, for me, it worked, between VMware and Virtualbox.

The only strange thing that happened to me was that a Windows 7 VM got corrupted (yes, my HDD is 5 years old and is already at the "yellow"/caution SM.A.R.T level. I could not get it starting up again, so I had to delete it. I'm pretty sure it had to do with the HDD but still...