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Review: VMware Workstation 9 vs. VirtualBox 4.2 | Virtualization - InfoWorld

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InfoWorld Hom e / Virtualization / Test Center / Review : VMw are Workstation 9 vs. VirtualBox 4.2
SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

Review: VMware Workstation 9 vs. VirtualBox 4.2

VMware Workstation is richer in features and polish than ever, but VirtualBox is still both capable and free
By Serdar Yegulalp | InfoWorld
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When it comes to virtualization on the desktop, two products stand front and center: VMware Workstation and VirtualBox. The former is the long-standing original keeper of the flame, from the company that gave us PC-centric virtualization technology as we know it. The latter is an open source project now under the stewardship of Oracle, with its own strongly competitive set of features. Which one's superior? It's never been a better time to ask, now that VMware Workstation is out in a new incarnation, and VirtualBox has a new release. We put the two side by side to see how they shaped up and whether or not the free-to-use VirtualBox 4.2 has advantages over the pay-to-use VMware Workstation 9. [ Learn how to work smarter, not harder with InfoWorld's roundup of all the tips and trends programmers need to know in the Developers' Survival Guide. Download the PDF today! | Keep up with the latest developer news with InfoWorld's Developer World newsletter. ] Both products run on Windows or Linux hosts, and both support a broad range of Windows, Linux, and Unix guests. Whereas VirtualBox supports Mac OS X hosts and guests as well, VMware offers a separate product, VMware Fusion, for the Mac. I tested Workstation and VirtualBox on an Intel Core i7-3770K CPU with 16GB of RAM, 128GB of SSD system-volume storage, and 2TB of additional hard disk space. The host operating system was Windows 7. VMware Workstation 9 It's difficult to go wrong with VMware Workstation. It's not just a top-notch VM host, it sports a level of polish and attention to detail worthy of a $249 desktop virtualization product. In addition to all the features users of such a product might need, Workstation has some capabilities that users might never have thought about. Version 9 adds such a bevy of new features to the product that listing them all in one place threatens to become overwhelming. The most visible are support for Windows 8 and USB 3.0; improved graphics drivers, which include OpenGL support for Linux guests; nested virtualization, which allows -- among other things -- running Hyper-V in a guest (at your own risk!); and a number of remote-control and VM management improvements. Happy Web day ! 25 websit es for 25 y ears 10 cool Bluet oot h devices for iPhone or Android 7 long-ago decisions t hat st ill haunt developers t oday Google? Evil? Y ou have no idea SOPA backers seek t o rest rict online right s again -but t his t ime out side t he law See all White Papers / Webcasts 5 Unsung Tools of DevOps | White Paper Maximize Efficiency in Your Virtual Environment with Converged Solutions | Webcast Mobile Application Management: An Interactive eGuide | White Paper Empowering Information Security with Desktop Virtualization | White Paper 4 Customers Who Never Have to Refresh Their PCs Again | White Paper Mobile Devices: The New Thin Clients | White Paper

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Review: VMware Workstation 9 vs. VirtualBox 4.2 | Virtualization - InfoWorld

30%

25%

20%

15%

10%

VMware Workstation 9

10
30%

9
25%

9
20%

9
15%

9
10%

9.3
EXCELLENT

Oracle VM VirtualBox 4.2

8.2
VERY GOOD

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Red Knocker

Review: VMware Workstation 9 vs. VirtualBox 4.2 | Virtualization - InfoWorld

a year ago

I only use Virtualbox because it is really really powerful .. not because its free .. if it will be for 1000$ i will still use it .. in my laptop i can run 10 VMs with Virtualbox and my laptop seams want another 100 VMs .. with vmware workstation I can only run 1 machine with a very very hot CPU .. and sometimes I need to restart the machine because it hangs when I run two VMs. * note: I use Linux as Host .. so try Virtualbox and I think you will like it ..
25 Mark

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a year ago

Not sure how a free product can be given a lower value than one for sale, but whatever.
76 BarryH

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a year ago

My $0.02 -- I prefer VirtualBox over VMWare Player. I have not tested Workstation, but may shortly. VirtualBox seems to be easier on system resources than Player. I prefer to be able to use RDP built-in to Windows to access remote VMs, rather than have to download and install some flavor of VNC. I haven't had any issues in deploying Windows (server and desktop), Linux, or Solairs under VirtualBox. The new 4.2 version will even allow me to deploy ESXi (free) as a nested hypervisor for more options.
4 Tim Bruce
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a year ago

Is this from a cross-platform world? QEMU is available for Windows and Linux and Macintosh. If it's just Windows, how does Virtual Server compare? If it's for Macintosh, what about Parallels? If it's for Linux what about LXC, KVM, or XEN? I like the article, but I wonder if there couldn't have been more products compared to give better answers than just comparing these two. Tim kboodu
2
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The_Old_Crab

a year ago

It would have been nice to know how VirtualBox stacked up performancewise against VMware Workstation.
1
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bitblokes

The_Old_Crab a year ago

Hmmm ... I don't now why my post with the video link was taken down (I work as a freenlancer for IDG Germany by the way!) ... but if you are interested go to YouTube and search for: VirtualBox 4.2 vs VMware Player 5.0.0 on a Linux Host ...
2 bitblokes 1 Kevin Vesga

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The_Old_Crab a year ago

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check my video - post above you :)

a year ago

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Review: VMware Workstation 9 vs. VirtualBox 4.2 | Virtualization - InfoWorld

Now if the choice where just between VirtualBox or VMware Player, which is better?
1
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Dave Koelmeyer

a year ago

@RobertRadina and others, to be absolutely clear, the current binary downloads *are* now licensed under the GPL2. The closed-source components have been moved to the extension packs, and those fall under the PUEL.
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Rob Radina

Dave Koelmeyer a year ago

Sounds even better than what I posted below. That information was from virtualbox.org product documentation. Is that documentation dated or did I misinterpret it?
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Guest

a year ago

Seems like a very shallow comparison, was hoping for something more useful than that.
6 Jeffmings
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a year ago

Speed and performance comparisons would have been very nice. I recently benchmarked vb on a linux host with a win 7 guest. I set the vb priority to max via the os (reniced). I found that the vb guest ran at around 91 to 94% of the general performance of the same win7 on bare metal. Performance is everything.
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Jeffmings

Jeffmings a year ago

FYI - my review. Infoworld, I appreciate everything you do, but some real quantitative comparison data are great. https://forums.virtualbox.org/...
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vonskippy

a year ago

Hmmmmmm. Two products, they both basically do the same thing, one costs $249 and the other costs $0 (as in zip, zilch, zero, nadda, free). Whatever shall I choose? Perhaps if the comparison actually had REAL METRICS, as in which VM Guest ran the fastest, or which VM Host took the least resources on the Host system. Instead it was a fluffy article with almost zero real information.
13
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Rob Radina

a year ago

How does VMWare beat VirtualBox (VB) on value? When I think of value, I think of ROI. Since VB received very good ratings vs. the competition and it's free for personal (even in a corporate setting) / academic use, what more can it do to earn a 10 in that category -- pay the customer to use it?
16
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Srrjra

Rob Radina a year ago

i agree - this is sloppy reporting. VBox is better value and i actually find the user interface of VBox a lot better than VMware. Incidently I get VMware free at work and still prefer VBox.
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3/18/2014

Incidently I get VMware free at work and still prefer VBox.

5
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Review: VMware Workstation 9 vs. VirtualBox 4.2 | Virtualization - InfoWorld

Rothweiler

Rob Radina a year ago

Since the sloppy reporting resulted in the claim that VirtualBox had to be licensed in a corporate setting, I went digging for the license cost. I was a little slow as it took me a bit to realize that " it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2." means that it is free for corporate use as well. Hey - the value just went through the roof for me!
7
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Rob Radina

Rothweiler a year ago

Only the OSE edition is published under the GNU license. Make sure you fully understand the licensing. If you download the non-OSE edition with extra goodies, it includes licensed material (such as VGA BIOS code and so forth) and those licensed materials are not GNU. However, Oracle says this about the non-OSE edition: ********** If you want the extra features that are missing from VirtualBox OSE, you can alternatively use the full VirtualBox package free of charge for personal use or evaluation purposes. Personal use is when you install the product on one or more PCs yourself and you make use of it (or even your friend, sister and grandmother). It doesn't matter whether you just use it for fun or run your multi-million euro business with it. Also, if you install it on your work PC at
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2 Guest

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a year ago

Hmmm... https://www.virtualbox.org/wik... - See Q6."Also, if you install it on your work PC at some large company, this is still personal use." )
2 Pj80226

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a year ago

I had a special case using some DOS based software, that used a hardware key to run. NT 4 could not find the key, W2k could not find the key, XP could not find the key and W7 could not find the key. Using MS Virtual PC\Windows 98vm and the software ran on XP. With Windows 7, that was not true. I tested Virtual box and it did not work. VMware Workstation 9 worked with the Windows 98 virtual unit. I could make a DOS machine in either one, but it still did not recognize the hardware key. VM ware made using the software possible - easily worth the price.
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Dave Koelmeyer

a year ago

I believe your information regarding the PUEL and OSE editions of VirtualBox is out of date: "Before version 4.0, there were two editions of VirtualBox: a full binary containing all features and an "Open Source Edition" (OSE) with source code. With version 4.0, there is only one version any more, which is open source, and the closed-source components have been moved to a separate extension pack."
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