VirtualBox vs VMWare – Best free virtual machine software

Are you looking for the best software for virtual machines but stuck between Virtualbox vs VMWare? Well, you have landed to the right page. In this comparison, I will pit Oracle Virtual box vs VMWare Player. For easier consumption of the content, I will be breaking it down into different segments. Feel free to scroll to your favorite part. At the end, I will tell you which software I like to use for Virtual machines.

Introduction to Virtual Machines:

I’ve been a Windows fanboy ever since I was a kid but I’ve been toying around a lot with Linux. Being somewhat new to the Linux operating system, you may not be ready to dual boot your PC or switch over completely to a brand new OS. So, you might just want to, you know, test out the waters a little bit in a virtual machine that runs on your Windows OS. There are a ton of Softwares that enable Virtual Machine capabilities on Windows but in this article, I will be looking at two of the biggest players. Virtual Box and VMWare.

A Virtual Machine a VM is a software implementation of a machine, in this case, a computer, that executes a program like a physical machine. It can be used as an Operating System that you can open and boot into on your normal computer. So, for example, I’m currently running, on my computer, Windows 10 64-bit, but in VirtualBox or VMWare, I’m also running Linux virtual machines. In other words, Virtual Machines allow you to run a separate computer inside your computer using the same hardware on a shared basis.

Benefits of Virtual Machines

Using a Virtual Machine means that I don’t need any kind of hardware, I don’t have to build a second computer just for Linux and I don’t have to reboot my laptop every time I want to dual boot into my Linux operating system. All I have to do is open VMWare or VirtualBox, choose my Linux virtual machine and start up the OS.

Virtual Machines are an excellent way of making a testing machine without having to build a completely new computer. You can run any kind of program, let it be Malware infected program or a Virus infected software on a VM. Because if anything happens to the Virtual Machine, you can destroy it within a couple of seconds and start again. All that without loosing any bit of your actual OS.

Drawbacks of Virtual Machines

Don’t get too excited when I say that you can run different operating systems inside your main operating system cause it comes with some drawbacks as well. As I mentioned earlier that Virtual Machines share hardware resources of your computer between the Main OS and the Virtual one, this can cause a slow computer. If you have a powerful computer system with plenty of RAM then this might not be an issue for you.

But if you are planning to run Linux VMs on a Windows Ultrabook then you will not get the best exeperiece as most of the laptops out there, are using Dual-Core battery oriented CPUs. Virtual Machines are best suited to Workstation grade hardware.

Tools like VMWare and VirtualBox are handy programs that you can install on your host computer i.e. my Windows 10 64 bit machine that I have. And if you don’t have a Windows machine, this can also run on, Mac, Linux or an OS called Solaris.

Oracle VirtualBox vs VMWare Player

Enough of the basics, now let’s address the elephant in the room. Which program is the best for Virtual machines? VirtualBox or VMWare? Well, for you to better understand this comparison, I will write all the Pros and Cons of both the programs and then you can decide for yourself which one is better suited for your needs. Before that, let me mention here that both programs are excellent and you will not go wrong with either of them.

Almost every single one of the Pros and Cons could be entirely opposite for you. It just comes down to personal preference. I would recommend try both VirtualBox and VMWare and see which one is better for you.

Pros of VirtualBox vs VMWare

1. The user interface is a lot simpler in VirtualBox vs VMWare. As I said earlier, this can be tied to personal preference. You may like the user interface of VMWare and I wouldn’t blame you for that.
2. Oracle Virtual Box is Open Source and completely free to use for both personal as well as commercial use. Being Open Source is a huge plus cause anyone can contribute to the development of the program and only the best of those are released in the final product. VMWare, on the other hand, is a free program for Windows but you will need to buy a license if you are on a Mac.
3. The performance seems a little bit better in the Host OS as well as in the Guest OS for VirtualBox. If you have a powerful computer with more than 4-Core CPU and 8GB of RAM then you might not feel the difference.
4. Oracle VirtualBox allows you to run Multiple Virtual Machine simultaneously but you can only run one VM with VMWare. This is another huge benefit for the VirtualBox but only for those who have a lot of processing power on their computer.
5. A lot of development: This point again goes to the VirtualBox cause of the Open Source GPL license. There is a huge active developer community that is backing VirtualBox development.

Pros of VMWare vs VirtualBox

1. Has better performance on Supported hardware. I know that I mentioned VirtualBox is better performing virtualization solution but if your computer system supports Virtualization then VMWare utilizes it and gives you better performance.
2. Even though VMWare is a Closed-source program, they are always one step ahead of the competition and have a more polished platform overall.
3. Better features. VMWare has a lot of unique and useful features which are not available in the VirtualBox. For example, you can drag and drop the files between your host and guest OS using VMWare guest addons.
4. VMWare can also issue Commercial licenses as it is a Paid program whereas VirtualBox can not issue commercial licenses other than the USB drivers.

Conclusion:

Before I reveal which one is my favorite between Virtualbox vs VMware Player, I like to take a moment and mention some little extras VMware Player comes with. Some handy tools such as VMware Browser appliance, which can be found on their website. You download the zip file from the website and you extract it. Then in VMware Player you choose to open a virtual machine and browse to the folder. Select the file BrowserAppliance.vmx and choose Open.

Now you can browse the internet deliciousness. Browser Appliance allows you to securely browse the internet using Firefox to protect against adware and spyware and you can safeguard your personal information as it can be configured to reset itself each time it’s booted up. So that no info is stored. Also available is a wide array of virtual appliances found over at vmware.com. These applications can help you with information in the Cloud storage, IT Administration, Networking and much much more. so now that

So now that I’ve checked out both VirtualBox and VMware Player, I have to say I like VirtualBox more. While both are free to use and work with all sorts of VMs, VirtualBox seems to be a little bit faster in the guest OS as well as the host OS. Also VMware Player only lets you use One virtual machine at a time while VirtualBox will let you open many at a time. So that’s it, Enter your comments below. I want to know which one is your favorite. VirtualBox vs VMware Player. Virtual machines are actually pretty easy once you get the hang of it. Also I want to hear your feedback what programs commands have you found hit me up in the comments section and I will catch you soon.