Desktop Virtualization Linux host Windows guest; What do you use?

So I’ve been reading a number of threads and articles on this and I set up VBox last night on Fedora 12 and it seemed so very easy. I feel like there’s a catch here. They say that Vbox is faster, but no USB support in the OSE, but VMware has a reputation of getting the job done. I’ve used VMware desktop on XP and 7 and they worked perfectly. I feel like there should be a catch.

Do you guys have any opinions? I’m really trying to compare VirtualBox 3.1.6 to VMWare Virtual Server 2.0.2.

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MentholMoose

VirtualBox is comparable to VMware Workstation. I think both are fine and use them on a daily basis. I've had occasional problems with both of them on Linux hosts, but nothing I couldn't resolve.

VMware Server is meant to be run headless, that is, on a server OS with no GUI or at least no GUI that you use. You connect to it remotely as needed. As such it is missing a few features that are in VirtualBox and Workstation, such as 3D support. If you don't want to leave a user logged in with VirtualBox or Workstation running for extended periods of time, then consider VMware Server. I think VirtualBox and Workstation do have some headless capabilities, but not as extensive as VMware Server.

pwjohnston

MentholMoose wrote: »

VMware Server is meant to be run headless, that is, on a server OS with no GUI or at least no GUI that you use. You connect to it remotely as needed.

So it's a full on hypervisor. That makes a little more sense. I thought it was a client version. Although I don't know why people wouldn't just opt for ESXi.

OoteR

pwjohnston wrote: »

So it's a full on hypervisor. That makes a little more sense. I thought it was a client version. Although I don't know why people wouldn't just opt for ESXi.

Hardware compatibility.

carboncopy

pwjohnston wrote: »

So it's a full on hypervisor.

No it's not. You need to have a Host OS to install it on. VMware server is manged via web browser or you can connect to it remote via the VMware remote console.

At home I use VMware Workstation 7 for Linux. I have also used VMware Server 2.* on Linux and have been very happy with both. I like workstation more because I am able to do multiple snapshots which you cannot do on VMware server.

To answer this question...

Although I don't know why people wouldn't just opt for ESXi.

VMware server has usb support, ESXi doesn't.

MentholMoose

It looks like VMware Server is being discontinued.
General Life Cycle Support Policy

JDMurray

MentholMoose wrote: »

It looks like VMware Server is being discontinued.
General Life Cycle Support Policy

That's just the general product support. People will continue to use VMware Server just as they do Windows 9x, MacOS 9.x, and MS-DOS.

varelg

pwjohnston wrote: »

So I’ve been reading a number of threads and articles on this and I set up VBox last night on Fedora 12 and it seemed so very easy. I feel like there’s a catch here. They say that Vbox is faster, but no USB support in the OSE,...

Depends where do you get VBox from/where do your repositories point to, on my openSUSE box I had the same no-USB problem and had to download Sun's version of VBox which comes with USB support for guest OS...
It used to be VBox was catching up to VMWare in terms of features, now I am not so sure after seeing what is VBox capable of...