VirtualBox Virtual Machine

Open Another Computer in a Window

What exactly VirtualBox does is a bit hard to grasp if you've never heard of virtualization. Basically, these "virtual machines" (the "VMs") are windows you open on your PC (the "host"), where you can install Windows or Linux on them and treat them as though they were another computer altogether. In fact, if a virtual machine were to get a virus, it would never affect the host PC, because the software runs in its own "machine".

Virtualization is difficult to explain. Screenshots demonstrate virtual machines best: multiple operating systems are open and running on one computer's desktop. This is not usually possible with a single computer, but VirtualBox makes it happen by creating multiple "computers" for you to install software on, and each virtual machine runs in its own window on your computer.

Where the Machines Are Stored

Each virtual machine is assigned a file on your host machine's hard drive. This file contains the contents of the virtual machine's "hard drive," and all the files on it. In other words, all the hardware (including the hard drive) doesn't really exist; it is simply a virtual device that is seen by the operating system as standard hardware. The virtual machines can even make use of USB peripherals that are plugged into the host PC.

Virtualization for Testing and Development

Apart from just looking cool, virtualization offers a lot of potential uses and benefits. For developers, it can provide the ability to test software on various platforms as you write it, rather than having to boot into Vista, XP, and 2000 machines just to verify that the software works as expected on each.

Users can fearlessly install software because it cannot make changes to your host machine. Also, VirtualBox provides the ability to take snapshots of the virtual machine's status, so that you can revert changes to a previous state. For example, with a virtual machine, you can roll back the system to the way it was just before a virus was accidentally downloaded.

Virtual Servers

Probably one of the most valuable applications for virtualization is for servers. Virtualization allows ISPs and businesses with many servers to consolidate old server machines onto one virtual machine host. This means that 5 old machines can be run on one, which saves power and makes it much easier to "move" the servers to another location (or another VM host). This flexibility and the savings it can translate to is driving the interest in virtualization technologies like VirtualBox.

What We'd Change

Getting a host to communicate with its clients on a network is still painfully difficult sometimes. NAT is easy, but makes it nearly impossible to talk to a client that is running a service. A clearer path to networking would be a great boost for new users.

Similar Software:

Links:

VirtualBox Home Page

VirtualBox Screenshots

VirtualBox End-User Documentation

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