Need some help want to set up a virtal box for windows

[argedion]

As the title suggest I want to set up a virtual box for windows. I have never messed with one and now have taken the plunge to remove windows from my computer. I do have a few uses for it still yet but want to be able to live with out it until that moment. So any good resources (good I mean recent, applicable, and helpful. Any help you can give will be appreciated. Not sure when I'll set it up as I want to enjoy a full winblows free environment for a few days atleast I'll be running Windows 7 Ultimate with Fedora 17 as my main OS.

 

[SUroot]

Its dead easy. Its actually self explanatory when you go through the steps.

My main recommendation though, for non commercial use, vmware player is more feature rich (and in my experience, more stable) than oracle virtual box. Unity mode on player is fantastic

 

[ninadchaudhari]

Go for anything from Vmware viewer and Oracle VirtualBox !
Do not know much on Linux which goes best, but on Mac Vmware Fusion(Paid) look more cool
THough virtual box(free) does the Job

 

[9to5cynic]

While I haven't tried the new VMWare Player (4.?) I hear it's awesome. Really though, I'd try VBox and see. You might like one over the other, and they're both free so play away!

 

[Davdi]

If you can get a license, use VMWare Workstation, failing that, Virtual Box is more flexible/feature rich than VMWare player (It can use VMWare's VMDK files), or if you use Linux try QEMU. I've not used it but have had good reports about it.

 

[SUroot]

If you can get a license, use VMWare Workstation, failing that, Virtual Box is more flexible/feature rich than VMWare player (It can use VMWare's VMDK files), or if you use Linux try QEMU. I've not used it but have had good reports about it.

VMWare player is basically non-commercial use of workstation. I use Vbox at work as its free for commercial use too, but I use Vmware player.

NO WAY is vbox more "Feature rich" than VMware player. Far from it. VMWare player is the best VM on Windows and Linux for home use.

This is my opinion, but it is my professional opinion.

 

[Demache]

VMWare player is basically non-commercial use of workstation. I use Vbox at work as its free for commercial use too, but I use Vmware player.

NO WAY is vbox more "Feature rich" than VMware player. Far from it. VMWare player is the best VM on Windows and Linux for home use.

This is my opinion, but it is my professional opinion.

I will be honest, I used to swear by VirtualBox. Then I got a copy of VMWare Workstation for free through university. Its seriously pretty damn good and seems to have better OS compatibility. If VMWare Player is similar, use that.

 

[9to5cynic]

^ 100%

If possible, Workstation is super good.

 

[SUroot]

I will be honest, I used to swear by VirtualBox. Then I got a copy of VMWare Workstation for free through university. Its seriously pretty damn good and seems to have better OS compatibility. If VMWare Player is similar, use that.

Yeah feature set is almost identical.

 

[argedion]

I did the oracle one and its decent and easy enough. I've actually only been in Windows 1 since I installed it with (VB) It is definately slower than doing a dual boot and I'm sure I have a lot to learn about tweaking such systems but for my small humble home needs its good enough. Thanks for all your input. I learn so much from this wonderful community of people.

 

[johnlgalt]

VMs will, by nature, be slower than multiple booting (for the most part) b/c using VMs your total system resources are being shared across multiple OSs, whereas by individually booting you get the full set of your resources dedicated to the OS that is booted at the moment.

 

[SUroot]

VMs will, by nature, be slower than multiple booting (for the most part) b/c using VMs your total system resources are being shared across multiple OSs, whereas by individually booting you get the full set of your resources dedicated to the OS that is booted at the moment.

Indeed. Unless you go the bare-metal hypervisor route but that's a whole other conversation. I just like saying bare-metal hypervisor. Its one of the coolest named products in IT. bare-metal hypervisor. bare-metal hypervisor