Battle BEST Free VM: Oracle VirtualBox or VMware Workstation Player?

[Soulbound]

As many of the users in MT use Virtual Machines, between the two free options, which one you recommend and why?

What features does each contain that you use?
What OS do use it inside the VM (Virtual Machine)?

 

[Sr. Normal 2.0]

For running linux I prefer VBox and for Windows VMware. The truth is that both are excellent and free. In the end, as usual, everything depends on which one you are most comfortable with. I feel better with the way VMware works.

 

[Rolo]

I never tried VMWare Player since it doesn't do snapshots.

I couldn't ditch Hyper-V fast enough; it's awful for using it outside it's intended purpose.

Hence, VBox. I use it for Ubuntu and as a Windows 10 sheep-dip.

 

[DC47561]

My thoughts are similar to Rolo's. The only thing I don't like about VMWare Player is the fact that there is no option to save a snapshot of a machine. I would really appreciate it if they were to add this.

 

[giants8058]

Voted for VirtualBox after just recently switching from VMware for many of the reasons people have already mentioned. Open source, multiple snapshots (which is great for malware testing) and you can even change certain settings while the VM is running like the network card for example. Any time I needed to adjust any settings with VMWare, it needed to be suspended or shut down. As for performance, just install guest additions and they are identical. VB hands down.

 

[Malware Person]

VMware is only good if you have an old processor without AMD-v or Vt-x

 

[Malware Person]

VirtualBox utilizes those virtualization technologies, thus speeding up virtual machines.

 

[S3cur1ty 3nthu5145t]

VMware is only good if you have an old processor without AMD-v or Vt-x

Not sure why you have stated this, but you can probably learn a thing or two reading the documentation of Vmware Player. VMware Workstation Player Documentation

Processor Requirements for Host Systems
You must install Workstation Player on a host system that meets certain processor requirements.

Supported Processors
The host system must have a 64-bit x86 CPU with 1.3 GHz or faster core speed. Multiprocessor systems are supported. When you install Workstation Player, the installer performs checks to make sure the host system has a supported processor. You cannot install Workstation Player if the host system does not meet the processor requirements.

Processor Requirements for 64-Bit Guest Operating Systems
The operating system that runs inside a virtual machine is called the guest operating system. To run 64-bit guest operating systems, the host system must have one of the following processors. n An AMD CPU that has segment-limit support in long mode n An Intel CPU that has VT-x support If you have an Intel CPU that has VT-x support, you must verify that VT-x support is enabled in the host system BIOS. The BIOS settings that must be enabled for VT-x support vary depending on the system vendor.

For those running the free version of Vmware Player for better integration of Windows, you can always substitute Rollback RX in your Guest machine to provide options of snapshots.

Personally i dropped the dime on Workstation Pro sometime ago and have not looked back.

 

[ng4ever]

Not sure why you have stated this, but you can probably learn a thing or two reading the documentation of Vmware Player. VMware Workstation Player Documentation




For those running the free version of Vmware Player for better integration of Windows, you can always substitute Rollback RX in your Guest machine to provide options of snapshots.

Personally i dropped the dime on Workstation Pro sometime ago and have not looked back.

Same here. I got it for 30% off!

 

[orthonovum]

VirtualBox Pros:

• Much easier to install OSX in the VM. VMWare actively blocks installing OSX in their Windows and Linux desktop products (edit: thanks Clarke).
• Open-source
• Active and open development community
• GPL insures your continued access to the source (or likely access..Oracle has magically "un-FOSS'ed" other FOSS products they acquired from Sun)
• Backed by large company
• You get the complete VirtualBox for free.

You are spot on here, VMWare has some silly behavioral things that don't make sense... (why can't I drag a VM tab out so it is in it's own window?) it is too much of a pain to get OSX working in VMWare and then it breaks with each update :/ That being said VirtualBox is not without pain points, they are both really good at what they do and if you remember the early versions from many years ago they have both come a long way! I think it comes down to which one of them will do everything you need them to do.

 

[ravi prakash saini]

it is a kind of conspiracy to confuse me moderator is suggesting one product and the super moderator the other.

 

[S3cur1ty 3nthu5145t]

it is a kind of conspiracy to confuse me moderator is suggesting one product and the super moderator the other.

LOL... It is simple. Virtualbox tends to work better with Linux distros, although either can be run, and VMware works better with Windows although both can be run. In terms of completely free, Virtualbox offers more as VMware is limited with its free version. Although one if crafty enough can make up for VMware Player free short comings, like using Rollback RX in the guest machine for creating snapshots, ect.

 

[TheJokerz]

I personally have only ever used VMware. In school we used the free workstation version to set up windows server 2008 for lab purposes. At my current job I use VMware Workstation pro for creating custom win 7 images for deployment. I have never had any issue running these. I actually like all the features that both versions have. I would give Virtual box a try if ever needed!

 

[orthonovum]

last week I switched from VMWare to Virtual Box because VMWare started failing to boot my VMs, they would just sit at either the restoring progress bar or the black vmware screen with the spinning animation forever, I had to force kill vmware and then restart it then delete the .lck files int he VM's directory then restart VMWare and the VM would be up and running already. This started happening one day and no changes were made to my config or VMs.

Went to my other laptop and was seeing the same behavior. After installing Virtual Box and just loading my VMWare VMs in there they have been working flawlessly for me in Virtual Box. In fact I love that I can have multiple VMs open in seperate windows without having to do dumb things and worry about .lck files

 

[212eta]

VMware Workstation Player because of its GUI.

 

[grumpy_joe]

Oracle, because I prefer open source
You can see the code = more trust for the publisher.

 

[computer man]

I've always used Virtualbox.