VirtualBox

Hi!

Just wondering if anybody has tried Virtualbox out yet?
I have just downloaded it and installed windows with it and it seems ok.

Virtualbox is a free opensource virtual machine app (like vmfusion/parallels)

Yeah.. It's good free tool. But it supports only 32 bit operating systems as of now. But it's good considering that it's a freeware

I'm using it on a regular basis for testing. I am currently running it on a linux box at work, and my MBP at home. I had some issues with it when I switched my MBP to 10.5 but those issues seems to be gone with the latest beta release (for what it is worth, I don't remember the exact error I was getting but I was unable to install Virtual Box on 10.5). So far it seems good running a Windows and Debian Linux virtual machine. I highly recommend using it if you need a VM.

Cheers

I haven't heard anything about Virtual Box. But my personal attitude to free soft isn't very good. This soft looks shady for me. When I pay for soft I know that I pay people who work for it, people who has developed this soft. And when I buy it I hope they did it well. What do people who develop free soft get? Nothing? Then it soft must be with low quality...
That's why I prefer apps that I pay for.. Parallels Desktop is one of them..
However, I've used free antivirus soft called Avast and i really liked it.. I just can't understand what do people get spreading free soft? Can anyone explain me?

kolevich said:

I haven't heard anything about Virtual Box. But my personal attitude to free soft isn't very good. This soft looks shady for me. When I pay for soft I know that I pay people who work for it, people who has developed this soft. And when I buy it I hope they did it well. What do people who develop free soft get? Nothing? Then it soft must be with low quality...
That's why I prefer apps that I pay for.. Parallels Desktop is one of them..
However, I've used free antivirus soft called Avast and i really liked it.. I just can't understand what do people get spreading free soft? Can anyone explain me?

Click to expand...

There is a lot of crap open source out there, to be sure, as there is also a lot of crap that you pay for.

Open source projects with an active user community put out very good programming (Open Office, Gimp, My SQL, Ubuntu...). I wouldn't put all open source applications in the same "low quality" box. Think of it this way - with the peer review that happens in open source development, lots of bugs get fixed and features implemented that would otherwise be missed or prioritized as less important in a commercial organization with fewer developers.

What do people get? Lots of things...satisfaction in knowing they have solved a technical problem, helped someone else, fun developing software that people actually use and appreciate. There is also a commercial angle - you can sell open source applications that you have put your own spin on (not to mention consulting around implementing open source applications for businesses).

kolevich said:

I haven't heard anything about Virtual Box. But my personal attitude to free soft isn't very good. This soft looks shady for me. When I pay for soft I know that I pay people who work for it, people who has developed this soft. And when I buy it I hope they did it well. What do people who develop free soft get? Nothing? Then it soft must be with low quality...
That's why I prefer apps that I pay for.. Parallels Desktop is one of them..
However, I've used free antivirus soft called Avast and i really liked it.. I just can't understand what do people get spreading free soft? Can anyone explain me?

Click to expand...

Then why don't you download a FREE copy and judge for yourself?

kolevich said:

I haven't heard anything about Virtual Box. But my personal attitude to free soft isn't very good. This soft looks shady for me. When I pay for soft I know that I pay people who work for it, people who has developed this soft. And when I buy it I hope they did it well. What do people who develop free soft get? Nothing? Then it soft must be with low quality...
That's why I prefer apps that I pay for.. Parallels Desktop is one of them..
However, I've used free antivirus soft called Avast and i really liked it.. I just can't understand what do people get spreading free soft? Can anyone explain me?

Click to expand...

I don't know what open source/free software that you have tried, but I would have to strongly disagree that open source software is inferior. You use the internet right...well alot of web servers out there are run on open source software...Linux/Apache/MySql/Python..etc. You are using a mac...there is alot of open source software on a Mac. A huge part of OSX is made from opensource software that Apple simply took (well maybe not simply) and changed to suit their needs (open a terminal sometime and type 'screen' without the quotes, ssh, python, ruby the last two are standard programming lanuages that are included in OS X and are completely open source)...so as I said, I beg to differ. Would Apple use "shady software"?

Cheers

VirtualBox is developed by Sun Microsystems? or is it just sponsored by them>?

this goes under good open source...

kmkl said:

VirtualBox is developed by Sun Microsystems? or is it just sponsored by them>?

this goes under good open source...

Click to expand...

Sun Microsystems bought them.

GroovyLinuxGuy said:

Sun Microsystems bought them.

Click to expand...

ahhh thx for the info!

Big thanx for your comments, mates... Maybe my view to free soft is too critical..
But as an economist I look at this situation thru commercial prism.. And still it isn't clear for me where is money in spreading free soft.. I would never believe that people who develop free soft work for nothing...

kolevich said:

Big thanx for your comments, mates... Maybe my view to free soft is too critical..
But as an economist I look at this situation thru commercial prism.. And still it isn't clear for me where is money in spreading free soft.. I would never believe that people who develop free soft work for nothing...

Click to expand...

Sometimes people do things for the love of it, some do it as part of their jobs...yes some companies will pay developers to work on free/opensource software as part of their jobs...

Here is a bit of reading if you are really interested. I think it explains it well enough

http://www.linux.com/articles/29045

Cheers

I've been responsible for some free software, that was actually part of my paid job. But as has been said, there are many people who will simply develop software for the enjoyment of it, or to solve a particular problem they have. Actually, much of Unix was developed that way. To solve problems.

kolevich said:

Big thanx for your comments, mates... Maybe my view to free soft is too critical..
But as an economist I look at this situation thru commercial prism.. And still it isn't clear for me where is money in spreading free soft.. I would never believe that people who develop free soft work for nothing...

Click to expand...

If it satisfies your profit prerequisite, the company that makes Virtualbox, Innotek, was recently purchased by Sun. Money can be made with free software.

Virtualbox is nice. The Mac version is a little behind on features compared to Windows and Linux; the networking is especially void of much-needed stuff like internal and host interface networking. The Mac version is also missing the VT-x hardware virtualization assistance that some guest OS's (specifically OS/2) require in order to work. It is very fast though.

I like VBox's wide guest OS support. Here's a thread I made on their forums a while back:
http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=3730

GroovyLinuxGuy said:

Here is a bit of reading if you are really interested. I think it explains it well enough
http://www.linux.com/articles/29045

Click to expand...

Nice article! Thanx! Perfectly answers my question...
Now I know many reasons for writing free soft...