Taking the plunge with Vitrualbox.

I am new to MAC but a long time Windows user. I still have two seldom used apps that require windows. I found Virtualbox today and it looks like it will do the trick and it is free. I had bootcamp setup on my MBA but disliked having to reboot into XP to run XP apps. Has anyone else used Virtualbox??

Yes, Virtualbox is very nice. I've been using it in Linux for quite some time. I like that it is omni-platform, so no matter where your OS travels take you, you can take VB with you.

mudpuppy said:

I am new to MAC but a long time Windows user. I still have two seldom used apps that require windows. I found Virtualbox today and it looks like it will do the trick and it is free. I had bootcamp setup on my MBA but disliked having to reboot into XP to run XP apps. Has anyone else used Virtualbox??

Click to expand...

I tried this with the previous version of VirtualBox (last release before sun bought innotek) the MBA just coudnt handle it. Installed XP Sp2 and was doing the windows updates and thrice it died on me. Had to do a hard reboot of the MBA to get back to normal.

Tried the same with parallels for mac, Not bad but just gets too hot and noisy.

mudpuppy said:

I am new to MAC but a long time Windows user. I still have two seldom used apps that require windows. I found Virtualbox today and it looks like it will do the trick and it is free. I had bootcamp setup on my MBA but disliked having to reboot into XP to run XP apps. Has anyone else used Virtualbox??

Click to expand...

About an hour ago, I blew away VirtualBox and the VM for WinXP I created. Here's why:

First, I used the latest version for OS X - released from beta Apr 30th.

1. No sound input support.

2. Problems with USB devices.

3. Jerky mouse movement, difficult to control.

4. No guest additions for Windows available for OS X version.

5. Poor control over the VM window - higher resolutions will expand the window but distortion occurs.

The VirtualBox uninstall program does not adequately remove any VMs you have created although it shows they've been deleted. For example: I created a 4 Gb WinXP VM, but when I deleted it, the HDD space was not released. Nor was it released when VirtualBox was uninstalled.

It took the better part of an hour to find the file and delete it. Spotlight could not find it.

My recommendation: Do not install VirtualBox for OS X. It might be OK for Windows and Linux, but it's not ready for prime time for OS X. If you really need to run Windows in a VM, bite the bullet and spend money on a product like Parallels or VMWare Fusion. Or, wait until VirtualBox is improved.

Just my opinion.

Regards.

Well the results are in. It is not ready for prime time but it runs the one app I need it for (Polycom MGC25 Video bridge manager accessed through the Cisco VPN client to my bridge located on the internal WAN at work). If I had to do any more I would have to go back to Bootcamp or one of the other virtual machine options. Thanks for all your comments.