TechAirlines: Technology Tips

Do you use virtualization software? This type of software lets you run multiple operating systems at the same time on a single computer. For example, if your main operating system is Windows Vista, you can be running Windows 7, Ubuntu, and Windows XP at the same time inside the virtualization software given that you have enough RAM to support it. There are many virtualization software out there, however the two most well known are Sun xVM VirtualBox and VMware products. I will be comparing VirtualBox 3.0.4 and VMware Workstation 6.5.3.

VirtualBox is free software from Sun Microsystems while VMware Workstation costs $189 USD for a single user license. With one being free and the other being paid software, why am I comparing them? Wouldn’t VMware be better? Well not necessarily. VirtualBox comes on very strong.

Note: The below stopwatch results are relative to my own system with a 2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor with 3 GB RAM. Results for individual systems may vary. I only gave the virtual machines one processor core. The following was tested on Windows Vista only.

Product Download and Installation:

To download VirtualBox, simply go here and download the 67.9 MB file. To download VMware (30 day trial), registration is required. In addition, the download is 507 MB, much larger than VirtualBox. The final install of VirtualBox is 79.4 MB compared to VMware’s 739 MB. The install of VirtualBox just feels a lot “cleaner.”

Winner: VirtualBox

Guest Installation:

On both products, I gave Ubuntu 9.04 512 MB of RAM and a 16 GB dynamic virtual hard disk and gave Windows 7 one gigabyte of RAM and a 30 GB dynamic virtual hard disk.. I did not use VMware Easy Install (more on that later). The times were measured from the point I clicked the final install button to the point the installation officially completed including all the automated restarts (waited the full auto restart timer).

Winner: VMware Workstation

Guest Boot Time:

This was measured from the moment the BIOS screen disappeared to the moment the login screen appeared. Both had their “Guest Additions” installed.

Winner: VMware Workstation

Guest Shutdown Time:

This was measured from the point it was finished logging off and was shutting down.

Winner: Tie!

File Transfer from Desktop to USB Flash Drive:

I used the same 650 MB ISO Image from Desktop to the same Flash Drive. I did not test transferring from folder to folder as both were almost instant.

Winner: VMware Workstation

Windows Experience Index:

Windows Vista and above has a feature called Windows Experience Index which measures the capability of the computer’s hardware and software configuration. The base score is the lowest score of the 5 categories, not the average. In Windows 7, the top score is 7.9 (previous version was 5.9).

Overall Winner: VMware Workstation

From the above, VMware is the clear winner, however, if you notice, VirtualBox usually didn’t come that far behind.

VMware Workstation is a feature packed virtualization software. One feature that users will definitely love is the EasyInstall feature. It will automatically detect which operating system you are installing from the disk or ISO image. Just click Finish and then Power on. Sit back, grab a coffee, and watch everything be done for you, including creating user accounts, selecting all the recommended settings, and even entering activation keys. You enter the user account info and keys before the install starts. If you frequently install virtual machines or have no idea how to go through an operating system installation, this is simply an awesome feature.

Virtualization is a great way to test new software and if anything goes wrong, there needs to be a way to restore the system. A feature known as snapshots can help. Just create a snapshot and the exact state will be recorded. Both applications have a similar manager though with VirtualBox, it is easier to use. In this example, I made a snapshot right after installation, and then after installing Firefox. Then I went back to the Just Installed state and installed VMware Tools and made a snapshot. However, my Firefox snapshot is not lost. With VirtualBox, it doesn’t seem like you can go back to previous snapshots without deleting the current one.

VMware Snapshot Manager

VirtualBox Snapshot Manager

How do you transfer files from your host computer to the virtual machine? Well both feature shared folders. You can have a folder shared between the host and the guest. Both VMware and VirtualBox don’t make it very clear of how to do so, leaving many users, myself included, completely confused. VirtualBox at least mentions it when users hover over the folders list in settings, though there isn’t a very detailed explanation.  Replace “sharename” with the name you gave the folder during the shared folders setup.

VirtualBox:

Windows-Map Network Drive:

\\vboxsvr\sharename

Linux-Terminal Commands:

sudo mkdir sharename
sudo mount.vboxsf sharename ~/sharename

VMware:

Windows-Location:

My Network Places\VMware Shared Folders\.host\Shared Folders\sharename

Windows-Map Network Drive:

\\.host\Shared Folders\sharename

Linux-Location:

~/mnt/hgfs

But with VMware, if you just need to transfer files, its even easier. Just drag and drop! Drag files into the virtual machine. Drag files out. Its that simple. In addition, the virtual hard disk files (.vmdk) can be mapped on Windows and be used as an actual hard drive. This isn’t possible with VirtualBox disks.

VirtualBox, however, does support VMware disks. It can use them for its disk and write to them, however cannot create fresh ones. VMware does not support VirtualBox disks.

The organization of the virtual disks are cleaner in VirtualBox, which stores the disk inside one file. VMware starts off with one file, but eventually expands to multiple hard disk files even if you selected one single drive during initial guest setup.

The folder for my virtual Windows 7. Notice there are four hard disk files.

VirtualBox opens each machine in its own separate window while VMware has each in a tab. When having multiple machines running, the tabbed interface feels cleaner and easier to use.

Both also feature a “Seamless” mode or “Unity” mode. This takes away the desktop background and window/tab and moves all the windows onto your host desktop. What makes VMware’s Unity stand above VirtualBox’s Seamless is that it manages to integrate the guest taskbar with the host taskbar and hide the guest taskbar completely. The application menu and start menu can be found by hovering over the host Start Menu. In VirtualBox, both taskbars show (along with the application bar of Linux).

VMware with Ubuntu in Unity Mode.

VMware (from the VM menu) also lets you capture a screenshot of the virtual screen and even record the screen without any additional screen recording software. The recordings are in AVI format and you can choose Low, Medium, or High quality. It can also record and replay executions. This allows you to record an action and replay that same action. These recordings are saved as a snapshot. Here, I am recording the screen and recording the execution at the same time, although there isn’t much execution here to actaully record.

The recording and capturing features are very useful and unique features that many users would find very helpful. These special features are not found in VirtualBox.

Despite not coming anywhere close to the features of VMware, VirtualBox is a very strong competitor. The main feature of VirtualBox that keeps it in competition with VMware… is that its free, therefore all users will be able to use it. VMware is limited to a free trial before users are required to purchase it and its expensive. In addition, being a free product, VirtualBox comes pretty close in performance to VMware. VirtualBox was only a few seconds slower in boot and shutdown time and was a few seconds faster than VMware shutting down Windows 7.

irtualBox has a MUCH faster update cycle than VMware. I checked out their changelogs.

VirtualBox Updates:

3.0.0: June 30, 2009
3.0.2: July 10, 2009
3.0.4: August 4, 2009

VMware Updates:

6.5.1: November 21, 2008
6.5.2: March 31, 2009
6.5.3: August 20, 2009

Updates not only fix bugs but also adds support for updated operating systems. I noticed that Version 6.5.3 of VMware supports Ubuntu 9.04. But Ubuntu 9.04 was released 4 months ago on April 23.

VirtualBox updates come on average every 1-2 months. VMware updates seem to come every 4-5 months.

I recommend VirtualBox to all users because its free and for a free product, it comes really close to a popular paid product. However, I do recommend trying VMware.

VirtualBox 3.04 Rating:
Performance: 4
Features: 4
Ease of Use: 4
Value for Money: 5
Appearance: 5
Overall: 4.25

VMware Workstation 3.5.2 Rating:
Performance: 4.5
Features: 5
Ease of Use: 4
Value for Money: 3.5
Appearance: 5
Overall: 4.4

Learn how we calculate ratings.

Want to give VirtualBox and/or VMware a try?

VirtualBox Home Page
Supports Windows, Mac, and Linux.

VMware Workstation Home Page
Supports Windows and Linux. Separate version (VMware Fusion) for Mac.