The world of desktop OS virtualisation
Gone are the days when PC enthusiasts had to install different operating systems onto different partitions of their hard disk and boot those one at a time. Desktop virtualisation has changed all that. We look at some of the virtualisation and emulation options available to the average user.
VirtualBox is free software. It was originally created by Innotek before being bought by Sun Microsystems. VirtualBox is now owned by Oracle and is perhaps the best and easiest virtualisation software available. The software runs on most popular operating systems, including Windows 7 Linux, Mac OS X and Solaris, and can host almost any guest operating system. An open source version of VirtualBox is available as well as a free proprietary version. The proprietary version includes a number of useful additions, such as full USB support, which makes it worth consideration.
VMWare was one of the original virtualisation providers in the market. Its proprietary technology was long regarded as the benchmark for desktop virtualisation. VMWare’s broad range of software covers all bases from high-end enterprise virtualisation through to consumer level desktop uses. The best way to get started with VMWare is to download a copy of VMWare Player which can run most popular operating systems on a single desktop.
Microsoft’s VirtualPC is designed primarily for running multiple versions of Windows on one machine. It is possible to run Linux or Mac OS X operating systems in Virtual PC but if those are your specific intention then there are better options available. For users wanting to run Windows XP on Windows 7 there is also XP Mode. That runs XP-based applications as if they were native Windows 7 applications, sharing the same desktop and resources.
Mac OS X users have the excellent (though expensive) Parallels Desktop software. Using Parallels, Mac users can run Windows, Linux, Solaris or a range of other operating systems on their Intel-powered desktop. Although originally designed for Mac users, Parallels is also available as a trial version for Windows and Linux platforms. Parallels is not free software but you do get what you pay for. If you’re working in a Mac environment then it’s probably worth first testing something like Virtualbox, and if that isn’t right for you, switching to Parallels.
QEMU is one of the original virtualisation environments and is more low-level than the others on this list. It doesn’t rely on a specific graphical interface to work and is very flexible. QEMU can be used with any number of front-ends so it is useful in most environments. Once running QEMU can emulate an extensive range of architectures (from ARM- and Sparc-based systems to 64-bit Intel systems) and host most operating systems. One of QEMU’s advantages is that its images can be run virtually anywhere, which makes it useful for using on USB-based portable systems. Virtualbox was originally based on parts of the QEMU code.
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