Continuation of this thread: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=298717 In the past 1.5 years I noticed how some of my virtual machines there were simply for show and served little to no use. Therefore, along with moving to from VMware Player to VirtualBox for more functionality, I have a new collection that is more frequently utilized as at least learning tools. Here they are: Fedora (x64 GNOME), Haiku (Nightly GCC4 Hybrid), Manjaro (XFCE), openSUSE (KDE), OS/2 Warp 4.5, PC-BSD (LXDE), Solaris 10 U8, Ubuntu, Windows Server 2012 (Datacenter), Windows XP (Professional) While it was a pain ~ Snipped as per TOS ~, I managed to get virtually all of them working with full resolution support, clipboard sharing, and/or file sharing. To do that, I installed Guest Additions on all of them, used Windows 7 built-in FTP server if Shared Folders + Drag'n'Drop doesn't work, and VBoxManage setextradata for those still using the Fallback VESA driver. Haiku and OS/2 Warp were noticeably harder, I failed to implement clipboard sharing for the former and full resolution support the latter. Anyways, enough of that. What have you installed?
The only VM I have ever installed was VMWare Player (the free one). I used to install Win XP in it. Just some tests and all those fun stuff. It worked quite flawlessly IIRC. I remember I tried the Avira + OA combo with it.
Actually, I believe I have installed Puppy Linux as well. I should've tried Mint first though. I haven't tried VMs other than VMWare Player. But I found it to be easy to use.
VMWare Player will appear easier at first, but once you get used to it, you'll want the feature-rich VirtualBox over VMWare Player. If you're just going to keep everything at default then the difference is minimal. VMWare Player allows you to use the free XP Mode provided by Microsoft, but most techies already have licenses for XP. I believe VMWare has better support for the Windows 9x family. Virtualbox has tons more features like snapshots, headless mode, more detailed hardware configuration, command line tools, etc. It also runs less processes in the background, without a tray icon. The other free software is either more limited with less compatibility or for people experienced with hypervisors.
I only use a Windows 7 vm in VirtualBox to test stuff out. I occasionally install a linux distro to try out from time to time but I never give it enough effort to learn it.
I have at least 50 VMs. Most are in VirtualBox, and most are Ubuntu or Xubuntu. But I regularly use less than ten of them.
Just tried OpenIndiana 151a8 (released today). While everything worked, including adding the SFE repository and installing FVWM, the alpha quality was still apparent. There was an error message opening installer, the root account's password expires right after installation, and GNOME 2 the only environment completely functional by default. I'll wait for the stable release.
Kind of amazing. Then. Now. Host: Slackware64-current Guest: FreeDOS, Haiku, Slackware, SnowLeopard, Windows7, WindowsXP, eComStation
On my XP host, I have a near duplicate of my default XP system for trying out new apps and ideas before adding them to my physical system. I have a virtual XFCE Mint for learning linux. I have a severely stripped and modified XP unit for testing. Had some 98 test systems but they don't run right on Virtualbox for me. There's a virtual router and firewall that I haven't done much with and a copy of whonix that I haven't yet tried. On my 98SE host with VPC, I have several versions of 98 for testing ideas and a duplicate of my default system for trialling apps and ideas. They run much better here than on Virtualbox. I have virtual XP systems, one for apps that won't run on the 98 host and one for testing. Have a couple of Win2K systems. Also have a couple of multiboot combinations for trying out different ideas. Gparted and the Acronis rescue disk work well here and allow for some interesting experiments that I wouldn't do on physical systems.
I use Virtualbox to run permanent OS\distros (as a learning thing) At one time I ran Linux Mint 12 Lisa – XFCE – LMDE – Linux Mint 13KDE – Linux Mint 14 Nardia – Ubuntu12.04 – 12.10 – 13.04 - Kubuntu13.04 and Windows 8 Pro. I found having all these distros too much to effectively use and maintain - have now consolidated on Linux Mint 13KDE – Ubuntu12.04 and Windows 8 Pro as keepers.
Tried ChromiumOS (Hexxeh), because I was considering a Chromebook. It basically gives you 2 options, an smartphone-like interface with less features than Android or Ctrl+Alt+T for complete terminal experience. For someone in the middle like me, it's hard to use except casually. Which is what it's made for (and non-technical family members), but hard to justify another machine at least until my slow netbook breaks.
Downgraded to Mageia, PC-BSD, Ubuntu, Windows Server 2012, and Windows XP due to lack of time and interest.
I have two XP Virtual Machines. I use Virtual Box because it is free and who doesn't like free stuff?
Only VM's I use are in a production environment. I run ESXi Host v5.1, use VMWare vSphere for management, and have everything from Server 2003 up to Server 2012, SQL servers, and CentOS.
I added a new VM (though a while ago, but I just rediscovered this thread). I now have a Fedora VM for c/c++ dev.
VirtualBox 4.3 is out. Ubuntu 13.10 will be out soon. Installing Windows Server 2012 R2 from DreamSpark (not enough space for upgrade). Re-converting to workstation. This will be fun.
I must have a penchant for this... Re-added Haiku, Manjaro, and OpenIndiana. Didn't bother with Guest Additions for Haiku this time. Set a custom VESA resolution and bash scripted [ftp "ftp://Windows.7.FTP.Server/"] for full-screen support and shared folders. Had to decrease mouse acceleration by a notch for better control. Manjaro worked fine, except Guest Additions wouldn't auto-mount my shared folders (which would require my account to have vboxsf privileges). So I had to edit /etc/fstab. As for OpenIndiana, I stuck with GNOME2 after noticing it's the only desktop fully supported. Guest Additions worked fine, but make sure you remove it before updating. To fix sound: sudo update_drv -a -i '"pci8086,2415"' audio810
Got rid of OpenIndiana. Tried Icaros Desktop, but couldn't get local FTP working. Next up was Sabayon, but the MATE version's clock widget stopped working after enormous update. Tried 2 versions of OS X, but filled with issues even at installation. Managed to get one of them full up-to-date with sound and full screen, but still slow (quad core+4GB RAM+128MB VRAM on guest), buggy FTP support (can't connect to a folder+can't see a zipped Mac program+can't transfer large files without disconnecting), no resolution switching, and stuck spotlight (after indexing, worked fine before). May have forgotten some other attempts, but finally ended with VectorLinux Light. Bit more geeky than I'm used to, but everything is working fine after setup/updates, except Shared Folders auto-mounting. The "Auto-mount" checkmark only creates empty folders. Editing /etc/fstab and rc.local doesn't work. Given up to manual mounting, which seems flawless.
