VirtualBox is a gift!
October 03, 2019
VirtualBox is a gift!
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Oracle VM VirtualBox
I use VirtualBox to spin up Linux VMs in my day job and recommend it to my students for building VMs on their various systems.
VirtualBox is what first allowed me to learn about VMs, and eventually Linux, without having to worry about having dedicated hardware or about quickly putting up and tearing down a whole computer's OS. I use VirtualBox today for build pipelines (software and game dev on Linux) as well as a testbed for software I'm getting ready to deploy on my company's servers, such as automation scripts or cron jobs. It also is great for working on local web dev tasks without having to be connecting to the internet and a real server.
VirtualBox is what first allowed me to learn about VMs, and eventually Linux, without having to worry about having dedicated hardware or about quickly putting up and tearing down a whole computer's OS. I use VirtualBox today for build pipelines (software and game dev on Linux) as well as a testbed for software I'm getting ready to deploy on my company's servers, such as automation scripts or cron jobs. It also is great for working on local web dev tasks without having to be connecting to the internet and a real server.
- Very simple and easy to understand. I'm able to pass this application on to my students and colleagues and they have no trouble getting their bearings and setting up VMs.
- Quick to launch VMs and the UI (both the app and the overlay when working in a VM) are simple and make it easy to get things done while also staying out of my way.
- It feels like a product that should cost a lot. It works well and is maintained. I've never had any problems with it.
- The downside to the simple design is that some people are turned off by this and assume it's not a good application.
- It reduced costs in training myself and other new IT staff when I first started using it by creating a low-risk environment for us to learn about building VMs and Linux in general.
- It has saved costs on having to expand my hard drive or have multiple web servers running, by allowing me to just spin up and close local servers when I need them.
It's free, fast, and really well built. Obviously, VMware is the key competitor, but I consider that more of an enterprise app for building and managing entire networks of virtual systems, whereas VirtualBox is fantastic as a personal VM tool. What it lacks in enterprise-grade features, it makes up for in speed and ease-of-adoption.