Virtualization software - Plenty of choices

[Mrkvonic]

Hi guys & gals,

If you're interested, here's an overview of several most popular virtualization software products, their features, strong sides, weak sides, comparison ... Among the stars VMware Player, VMware Server, VirtualBox, QEMU, MojoPac, and others, side by side ...

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/virtualization.html

Feedback is appreciated.

Mrk

[pandlouk]

Hi Mrkvonic,

excellent review. :thumb:

Panagiotis

ps. some virtuallizetion apps that miss from the review:
usb virtuallizion suites Ceedo (http://www.ceedo.com/), u3 (http://www.u3.com/), Prayaya V3 (http://www.prayaya.com/eng/)
vmware portable Moka5 (http://www.mokafive.com/index.php)
similar to mojopac iCore Computer 3-in-1 (http://icoresoftware.com/index.html)

[Meriadoc]

Great! Perhaps you could add a little history or mention other virtualization, maybe hardware assisted (-V, -VT) I know its a big subject but here's a link(wiki) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Virtualization_software) that could aide you.

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,
Already planned, but that's in the future ... :)
I'll also see if the other linked software has merits ...
Cheers,
Mrk

[Peter2150]

-{ Quote: "Hello,
Already planned, but that's in the future ... :)
I'll also see if the other linked software has merits ...
Cheers,
Mrk" }-

HI Mrk

Excellent reviews. Only addition, I can see is where you mention Returnil and Shadowuser, is to add Shadow Defender to that list. It certainly is a contender with merit.

Pete

[Acadia]

Mrkvonic, thank you very much for this information. I have a question. I browsed the VMware website and got quite confused. Can I, without installing any of their paid products, install the VMware Player and then install the Browser Appliance? Or, do I have to install an entire Operating System in order to use the Browser Appliance? In other words, can the VMware player be used by itself without having to install an entire OS? Thank you.

Acadia

[pandlouk]

-{ Quote: "Hello,
Already planned, but that's in the future ... :)
I'll also see if the other linked software has merits ...
Cheers,
Mrk" }-
Mrk I forgot to ask.

Where is wine? :ouch:


Panagiotis

[Pedro]

Pandlouk, Wine = "Wine Is Not an Emulator" :P

[Franklin]

Not that good a review at all in my opinion.MS Virtual PC 2007 is free and a piece of piss to setup and use.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, instead of Mojopak copy and paste a VHD to a decent USB device then use MS Virtual PC to assign a VM to it.

[Pedro]

Just finished reading it, well done. A quick read, but a good overview.
Who cares if it doesn't have MS Virtual PC 2007 heh.
Last time i tried it, it lagged behind, and it will always be Windows only, for the foreseable future. My 2 cents, why bother with it.

[Longboard]

How to make your ( well mine anyway :) ) brain hurt:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeBSD_jail
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/jails.html

That wikipedia page is an eye opener what :o
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Virtualization_software

-{ Quote: "do you have enough spare time" }-;D

Couple of virtually (sic) sick punes too.

Dedoimedo: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

How's the hit count stacking up ??
Hows the wallet going with the bandwidth ??

Tried VMWare Player and Server & VBox: had to give the $$ for the VMWare Workstation.
Too good to resist.
Looking forwards to 3D tools soon.

[Mrkvonic]

-{ Quote: "Not that good a review at all in my opinion.MS Virtual PC 2007 is free and a piece of piss to setup and use.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, instead of Mojopak copy and paste a VHD to a decent USB device then use MS Virtual PC to assign a VM to it." }-

Hello,

If you're not allowed to install anything on the host, your solution is not applicable. Mojopac is.

As to why not MS Virtual PC - the following reasons combined:

- Runs only on Windows host.
- Supports only Windows guest machines; you can get others to work after heavy tweaking, with less than desirable performance.
- Much slower than the alternatives (VMware Server, VirtualBox ...).

Acadia, as to your question:

You use VMware Player to run the Browser Appliance. The Appliance is just another virtual machine, however packaged to make it useful for a broad range of people.

You can also create your own :) or run it in Server and even VirtualBox.

Longboard, to your questions:

I'm between 500 and 5,000 users daily, depending on the week... On average, approx. 1,000-2,000 users daily - and rising ...

As to the bandwidth, the bleed is not that high, due to pure html nature of the site. It can handle a lot. Plus, my brother is an old, pampered customer of his hosting plan, so he's got a plenty to spare, 1TB monthly or so.

Still a lot to go before it becomes a problem ... once I hit approx. 30-40K daily, then it could become a little tight ...

Mrk

[Franklin]

Do any of these other Virtual apps use all cores of the host machine's cpu or only run on the one core?
-{ Quote: "If you're not allowed to install anything on the host, your solution is not applicable. Mojopac is." }-
If you are allowed to install then it's a much better and faster solution than Mojopak.
-{ Quote: "As to why not MS Virtual PC - the following reasons combined:

- Runs only on Windows host.
- Supports only Windows guest machines; you can get others to work after heavy tweaking, with less than desirable performance.
- Much slower than the alternatives (VMware Server, VirtualBox ...).
" }-
If you only use a windows host then it's fine and as for speed I can't see any difference at all here between Virtual Box and MS VPC.

I have tried a few different Linux distros and I doubt I will go there again. :thumbd:

[Acadia]

-{ Quote: "
Acadia, as to your question:

You use VMware Player to run the Browser Appliance. The Appliance is just another virtual machine, however packaged to make it useful for a broad range of people.

" }-
Yes, I know, but is the VMware Player all that I need in order to run the Browser Appliance or do I need to build another virtual Operating System thereby needing a second Microsoft license? Thanks again.

Acadia

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,
Just the player. Download the Appliance. Run it through the player.
That's it. Enjoy ...
Mrk

[Acadia]

Mrkvonic, thank you much! :)

Acadia

[Searching_ _ _]

Hello Mrkvonic, Is their any chance you might write a How to manually create and configure bridged interfaces for VirtualBox? From a linux and Windows perspective? I am new to VB and came to an obstacle for networking my guest to host. I'm going to hit their faq and see how it can help my situation.

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,
Yes, that could be possible.
I'll write it down on my to-do list ...
Mrk

[DasFox]

Sheesh no Pearpc mentioned...

I wish this project would kick into gear again and gain some more life, because not everyone out there is running SSE2/SSE3 cpus to just install OS X directly into their box, and I happen to be one of those...

Well after the past few days here is Tiger in pearpc running on my XP box... :)

http://img218.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pearpcxpdesktop1ws3.jpg

Long live Virtual Emulators!!! ;D