VMware Player and VirtualBox which is better to learn ?

VMware Player and VirtualBox which is better to use an learn.
On Wednesday of last week i took the plunge and installed VM ware on my Laptop so I could install Ubuntu 13.04.
I wanted to check out this Virtualzation thing as well as try to learn Linux. VMware player would not work with my Windows 8 media pro system no mater how many times I tried. So after two frustrating days I decided to switch gears and install Virtual Box. Ubuntu would not work for some reason but Fedora 19 installed like a charm.

I was wanting to know if any community members have used either of these programs and what they thought of them. I know there are Virtualzation certifications out there and at some point I may invest the time into them but for the time being I am trying to get my Cisco certifications done.

Let me know what you think ?

mgmguy1

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Comments

sratakhin

None of these products is sophisticated enough to actually "learn".
VMWare Player and Workstation won't work on your machine if you have Hyper-V enabled.

Essendon

If your aim is to work on non-virtualization certs for now, then go with whatever's easier to configure. You dont want to spend hours/days tryin' to get the damn software working, just go with whatever floats your boat, for now at least.

Once you start focussing on virtualization certs, then go with either Hyper-v or vSphere.

gbdavidx

vsphere is probably the most complex and seems to be lightweight when I installed it, seems like that one has one of the most steep learning curves

DevilWAH

VMware is main stream and like people have said vmware or hyper-v are what you will find in production networks.

However for a home lab where you want to have a few virtual machines running, I think virtual box is better, and more features compared to the free versions of VMware.

An enterprise licences vmware set up though is a nice thing to manage.

CoolAsAFan

+1 what Essendon and DevilWAH said.

VirtualBox for home labs and VMWare for enterprise. I am studying for Linux+ and use VirtualBox everyday to lab with a couple different linux distros.

DevilWAH

Oh and if you want to play with cisco and the GNS3 emulator, virtual box ties in very nicely so you can have your virtual guests hooked up to you cisco lab. Great for running checkpoint firewalls.

mgmguy1

Thanks all for the input.

dbrink

If you are running Windows 8 then why not just use Hyper-V? It is built into Windows 8.

Crikey

The biggest difference I can remember between VmWare Player and VirtualBox is that VB allows for snapshots (player does not).

However, installing an OS with player is almost effortless.