I have been using VMWare for several years and find it very useful especially on my former field of work. As our team was supporting several countries with multiple applications, virtualization is definitely like a gift from heaven. It solved the problem in hardware and space as we can have multiple virtual environments on our PCs and laptops.
On a more personal note, I created separate VM for my wife (oracle) and for me (sql server + visual basic). A separate VM was also created for Linux(no more dual boot) which I use to familiarize myself with that OS (linux/unix is now a necessity on my new job). So imagine, I all have these in one box and virtualization allows me to be more flexible. And the backup? Never been easier. I can backup the whole environment and not just the data. And yes, I can bring the virtual image in another PC and use it there. Easy, eh!
And something that good can’t be free, right? Wrong! You can download a free version of VMWare free of charge. Of course, the free version has a lot of limitations (like creating your own image) but it just do its job. But despite that limitation, you can freely download virtual images from the internet. I download thoughtpolice images as their torrent feeds are fast while I use an image I created from my former office laptop installed with the paid version of VMWare.
But there’s a problem with VMWare, its footprint is heavy and large. Aside from that, you will not be able to adjust the size of your virtual harddisk unless you go for the paid version. The more you become dependent on it, the more you want to buy a license.
And then comes VirtualBox from Sun. A GNU/GPL Licensed(FREE) virtualization system that has a very small footprint (it installs on 30MB of HD) and you’ll get everything what a VMWare Workstation offers. It adds more flexibility and starts faster. And since it comes from Sun, you can count on its quality. It’s simply awesome!
errr… for the very few that reads my blog, you may not really need it. But who knows, you may need it for some reason.
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