GOING BEYOND VIRTUALBOX

WE’VE COVERED VIRTUALBOX in detail, primarily because it’s free to use and pretty comprehensive in its abilities. For most tasks, you’re unlikely to need anything more complex. If you want to take virtualization further, though, there are a few commercial tools that can make the process easier and (generally) run VMs more efficiently. VMWare Workstation Player, free with a limited set of features, is a solid option, and one that’s compatible with the same VHDs, though you need to pay a license fee if you want to use it commercially. Its level of support and development is, naturally, very good, it’s arguably more capable than VirtualBox, and it’s due a major version upgrade soon, which should add a little spice. Check it out at www.vmware.com.

If you’re willing to create a dedicated host, it’s also worth considering Linux-based solutions. QEMU ( www.qemu.org) is available for just about every Linux distribution, and it’s super-efficient, executing as much of the guest code as it can directly on the host machine, through a process known as dynamic binary translation. It’s also able to run without admin privileges, meaning you can tuck your QEMU VMs away on a flash drive, carry them around with you, and return to a familiar environment no matter which host machine you’re running on. There’s a version compiled for Windows, if you’re feeling adventurous—see http://qemu.weilnetz.de for the downloads.

While we’re in the Linux world, picking a distro based on the Xen hypervisor is a good choice for experimentation. Check out Qubes OS ( www.qubes-os. org), which dubs itself “a reasonably secure operating system” with a typical lack of hubris. All of its apps run in one of a number of VMs, completely isolating them from the others for security and efficiency reasons, and you can add your own VMs—including those based on a number of different Linux architectures and, naturally, virtual machines based on Windows.