▷ Virtualbox reasons to choose it as a virtualization tool

VirtualBox is one of the most famous applications, especially for virtualization in desktop environments in the home and small businesses. Let's see what are the advantages that VirtualBox offers for its users and why we don't need another application. In previous articles we have already been able to see what virtualization is about and what are the main applications used in the business and home computing world.

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VMware is the most advanced family of virtualization programs on the market. This company offers solutions for all kinds of situations, including, of course, its use for virtualization in home and test environments. But they have an important drawback and that is that it is paid. For our part, we have already made an article pitting VirtualBox vs VMware.

Now we will give what are the most important keys to use VirtualBox as Hypervisor in our team.

Most importantly: it's free

Without a doubt, one of the most important reasons to use VirtualBox is because it is a free application. Oracle, the company that owns this tool, is in charge of developing it completely freely.

To download it we will only have to go to its official website and choose the download option. What's more, extensions to support USB 2.0 and 3.0 functionality are now also available for free.

In this sense, we must say that there are many applications for virtualization for free, for example, HEMU which is also similar to VirtualBox, but most of them are limited in terms of the host systems it supports. The vast majority are applications that must be installed on Linux operating systems.

VirtualBox is cross-platform and multi-execution

Directly from the above comes the second most important reason. VirtualBox is a cross-platform application, for both host computers and guest systems. VirtualBox is available for installation on physical Windows, Mac Os and Linux operating systems, so we will ensure its compatibility with all of them without the need to pay a penny.

In addition, we can also virtualize all kinds of operating systems, both 32-bit and 64-bit architecture:

• Windows: in all its versions of desktop and serverMac OS XLinux: in practically any version of these SolarisBSDIBMY almost all that we put ahead.

We can also run and open several virtual machines simultaneously as long as our physical resources allow us to work with several of them without too much effort.

Supports VMware virtual machines

In addition to creating its own machines, VirtualBox is also capable of opening virtual machines from its rival VMware, which is very useful when we download any of these directly configured machines and we do not have VMware installed on our computer.

To do this we will only have to create a new virtual machine with the wizard in expert mode. On the first screen we must choose, as in the hard drive section, to use an existing hard drive file. Here we can choose one that belongs to VMware.

Supports VT-x and AMD-v virtualization technologies

Thanks to the virtualization technologies of the main microprocessor manufacturers AMD and Intel, we will be able to allow virtual machines to directly extract the physical hardware from our host equipment, thereby providing better performance for these machines for use.

To activate it we will have to go to the configuration properties of the virtual machine. In the system section we will have this option available to activate or deactivate it.

Guest Additions Tools

Like VMware, VirtualBox also has extra tools that, once installed in the guest or virtualized operating system, will considerably increase the performance of this machine. Thanks to them we can:

• Copy and paste files and text directly by dragging them from the physical machine to the virtual one. This is possible because the clipboard of both machines is synchronized. Enter and exit with the mouse and keyboard without using the key combination. It considerably increases the performance of the machine, since it better manages the virtualized hardware and the necessary resources.

In addition, we will have these “ Guests additions ” available for all or almost all the systems that we virtualize.

Ability to customize hardware

With VirtualBox we can modify and define the hardware devices that we want from the virtual machine. Hard drives, Networks, Number of processors and dedicated cores, Amount of RAM memory, input and output devices, Audio, displays and even 3D acceleration.

Although it is true that in 3D acceleration section it loosens a little compared to VMware, we can also activate these properties in a basic way.

In addition, we will have support for USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports by installing the corresponding extension package from their website for free.

To do this we will have the complete list of modifications in the virtual machine configuration section.

Using shared folders and network settings

Within the device configuration we must highlight that as with VMware, we will have the possibility of physically connecting the virtual machine to our router through a connection bridge. In this way we will be able to better simulate a virtual network and connect the virtual equipment with the physical equipment to share resources.

In addition to this, the program allows us to directly add shared folders from the host computer to the virtual one in case we use the NAT connection mode.

Clone virtual machines

If we extend the configuration options of a virtual machine, we will have the option of cloning this one. This is very useful when we want to replicate a machine that we have created on several of them without having to create them one by one.

Capture the screen in video

Finally and as a curiosity, VirtualBox also has the possibility of recording in video clips all the actions that I carry out in the virtual machine.

This option will be available in the screen section within the virtual machine configuration options.

As you can see, we have enough reasons not to have the need to use another virtualization application on our team. VirtualBox offers us a complete range of options with which to carry out all kinds of tests on our virtual machines. And above for free.

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What do you think about VirtualBox? If you use a different application and consider it better than VirtualBox, write us in the comments.