VirtualBox or VMware?

I want to install windows 8 on a virtual machine before I install it on my computer. What I want to know is which is the better software for this? I've heard a lot about both VMware and VirtualBox but I'm not sure which one to get. I have used VMware before to run various versions of linux on my desktop before installing them. Virtualbox on the other hand I have never used so I don't have an opinion on how good it is. Thanks for your time.

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petedude

Sounds like you're running Linux as your base desktop OS, so Virtual PC is out.

My vote is VMWare. More stable, generally more compatible, I think. But that's just me.

webgeek

+1 for VMware

kj0

I had my labs in VirtualBox a few times, but then it was a bit unstable so I went to Vmware, and prefer it,.

DevilWAH

I use Virtual BOx on my desktop PC mostly. It integrates in to GNS3 which for me is a big Plus. And also it seems to run with less issues than VMware with a small install footprint.

Having said that if I am honest there is little to chose between them, I have not found issues with one falling over or out preforming the other, but are very sounds and well supported.

lordy

From my experience with both I would choose VMware.

It has better useability and stability.

Qord

I've heard of issues with Win8 in Virtualbox so I'd say to use VMWare, although I haven't tested it myself.

It's kind of a bummer too, I'm a huge fan of VirtualBox. Not because of features or stability or usability, it's just what I'm used to using. I'll probably try it anyway just to see for myself though.

SteveLord

VMware, but you gotta pay. Virtualbox is a good free product though, but I too have found it to be less stable.

synseq

Alright cool. I bought VMware workstation 8. It looks very cool. Already tested it and ran ubuntu linux and it works great. As for Windows 8 I have to free up some hard drive space and configure memory usage and all of that. Windows 8 has a lot of requirements normally wouldn't be a problem on any of my laptops or desktops to run but to run simultaneously with windows 7 I'm probably going to run it on my alienware to avoid any performance issues. I did the hardware compatibility check and everything checks out. I've heard a lot of good things about windows 8 I hope it lives up to the hype.

paul78

SteveLord wrote: »

VMware, but you gotta pay.

I use VMPlayer. You can use it for free. It seems to have a lot of the same basic features.

BroadcastStorm

Not really sure of the difference with VMware NFS and iSCSI, but did anyone have success connecting a VMware 3.5 32 bit to an iscsi over a QNAP storage? It doesn't seem to work for me, I like the freebie VMware ESXi 3.5 VM gave a way before.

nics11c

I think you should go for VmWare as it is beneficial to do its certification

networkjutsu

VMware FTW! They've been doing virtualization for a long time now. First time I've played with it was in 2001 and been a fan ever since.

I tried Virtualbox for the first time (about a month ago. I know I am late to the party) in my work laptop and wasnt able to install Windows 7 using the same ISO I used under ESXi that worked. Guess what? I'll most likely never going to use Virtualbox ever.

Everyone

Out of those 2 choices... VMWare.

Although as I just pointed out in another thread... Windows 8 has the latest Hyper-V in it...

DevilWAH

If you are going to install ESXi on a bare mettle system then diffidently go for VMware as it will be teaching you a corporate tool.

however if you are running virtual guests from with in a desk top environment and want a "free" hypervisor then I think Virtual Box is much better then Vmware player. Its less of a system hog and can run many things that VMware struggles at (Juniper IOS for one).

The old VMware server edition was great to, but a lot has been lost now they have moved to "Player"

qwertyiop

networkjutsu wrote: »

VMware FTW! They've been doing virtualization for a long time now. First time I've played with it was in 2001 and been a fan ever since.

I tried Virtualbox for the first time (about a month ago. I know I am late to the party) in my work laptop and wasnt able to install Windows 7 using the same ISO I used under ESXi that worked. Guess what? I'll most likely never going to use Virtualbox ever.

Why wern't you able to install it? I've been using Virtualbox for many years now though I was introduced to VMWare in 2005 and have never had an issue with it. Have installed BSD, Win XP - 7, and many Linux Distro's, another plus is that it has support for may different cirtual disk standards where VMware only supports VMDK's.

networkjutsu

Oh I am sure it works just fine. I have friends who use Virtualbox as their primary VM for home use so I don't question that. For whatever reason, I wasn't able to install Windows 7 in my work's laptop. I didn't really want to spend a lot of time troubleshooting it so I just let it go. I just ran new cable to my ESXi box at work since it has 6 NICs anyway. Since it didn't work, I decided to uninstall Virtualbox and I have no plans in the near future to use it again unless I have to.

whatthehell

VMWARE! Much more polished. You can use VMWare Player for free. Virtualbox is nice, but Vmware is the bee's knees.

QHalo

qwertyiop wrote: »

Why wern't you able to install it? I've been using Virtualbox for many years now though I was introduced to VMWare in 2005 and have never had an issue with it. Have installed BSD, Win XP - 7, and many Linux Distro's, another plus is that it has support for may different cirtual disk standards where VMware only supports VMDK's.

Yeah same here. I have VMware workstation on my laptop at work, but run VB at home on my Mac. Never had an issue with either product. I do like that VB supports multiple different disk types. Kinda nice to have VHD support in one place.

pwjohnston

I have run VirtualBox on top of Fedora since Sun owned it and I've had very little problem. On the Windows side, well that's another story...

KenC

I think Virtualbox is great - a lot of the issues that people have are often addressed in the documentation, but most people don't even look. Having said that, I have not tried a Windows 8 VM yet.

I didn't like VMWare as much when I was evaluating the two (it was the free version). VMWare is much more common in the work environment, so you'd probably be better off using it.