Virtualize an operating system on a different platform and access all its functions and features. Access configuration settings and check the "virtual" hardware presented to each simulated system. Integrate older systems into modern computers, like a DOS module for Windows or OS/2 elements.
VirtualBox is an open source application to manage and run virtual machines. If you ever need to run a virtual (guest) operating system on your host machine that runs Windows, Linux, Mac OS X or Solaris operating system, you should check this program out. It is absolute free but includes almost all the features that the modern virtual machines must have.
Innotek, the original developer of the software was bought out by Sun Microsystems. In early 2010, one of the top 100 Fortune companies, Oracle, bought out Sun and is now the current development curator of this application.
Given the open source nature of the software, it is expected that it is available for multiple platforms. One can download the program for absolutely free from the program's website. One can also find an extension pack available for a free download that enables the support of USB 2.0 and other technologies under guest operating system.
There are some bugs here and there, but if you check out the development logs, you can see that the developers address those bugs pretty quickly in hopes that they won't loose the already existing valuable customer base. There were only 5 months in between two major releases, so you can see that the ball is rolling and the application is not abandoned but evolving.
As far as the features go, the virtual machine market is very saturated with open source application, hence all of the VM developers are trying to keep up with the latest trends, giving the customers support for the latest technology. VirtualBox supports VT-x and AMD-v, therefore increasing the execution speed of your guest operating system. No word on supporting of VT-d, but I am sure it is coming in the near future, as the chips with that extension catch up the market. Keep in mind that using VirtualBox gives you an edge as it supports other virtual machine's hard drive images, such as VMWare's and Microsoft's, while the relationship is reciprocal due to close source nature of VMWare and Microsoft's products.
Overall, this application is one of the leaders on the market for virtualization. Its open- source nature gives it an edge over the closed source applications in regards to implementing the newest code and technologies.
v4.1.36 [Jul 2, 2011]
* VMM: fixed PAE guests running on 32-bit hosts (4.0 regression; bug #9458)
* VMM: fixed INVALID_PARAMETER guru meditation caused by insufficient memory conditions (4.1.0 regression; bug #9240)
* VMM: fixed clobbered CPU registers during stos/lods/ins/outs emulation under rare circumstances
* VMM: another fix for 64-bit guests on recent AMD CPUs
* GUI: warn the user if he uses an outdated extension pack and allow to download and upgrade in that case (bug #8025)
* GUI: fixed spurious LCtrl key events on some Windows hosts (4.0.6 regression; bug #373)
* VBoxManage: another fix for extpack install --replace (bug #9308)
* VBoxManage: allow to specify the UUID of the target image in convertfromraw
* VRDP: fixed a rare crash when two or more clients connect to the server (bug #9503)
* VRDP: fixed a case when a client was not resized correctly (bug #9242)
* USB: make device capturing work on Windows hosts with usbhub class filter drivers installed (bug #9298); bugfixes for Windows host USB support
* VHD: fixed reads crossing block boundaries (bug #8532)
* VMDK: fixed progress indicator when creating split VMDK images
* Floppy: fixed medium size detection for physical mediums (Windows hosts only)
* Main: fixed VM initialization if a shared folder does not exist (bug #7941)
* Main: fixed possible deadlock between hard disk enumeration and resetting of immutable disks (bug #9549)
* Main: fixed not detaching of virtual storage after a snapshot restore operation (bug #8296)
* Main: always reset modified state after restoring a snapshot (bug #9387)
* Main: fixed writing of changed VM settings to disk when using snapshots (bug #8932)
* Main: fixed taking screen shots (e.g. the preview window) for headless VMs if the Guest Additions are active
* Virtio-net: fixed the problem with UDP packets exceeding MTU (bug #9370)
* 3D Support: fixed incorrect rendering and possible crashes when switching to/from fullscreen with enabled 2D acceleration
* 3D Support: fixed compiz under ubuntu 9.10
* Guest control: Miscellaneous small bugfixes
* Linux / Solaris hosts: don't use hard links in packages (4.1.2 regression; bug #9441)
* Mac OS X hosts: fix installation issues when installed as root (bug #1578)
* Mac OS X hosts: fixed packet capture issues with vboxnetX host-only interfaces (bug #8076)
* Solaris hosts: fixed incoming multicast packets for Crossbow based bridged networking (bug #9532)
* Solaris hosts: fixed starting EFI guests due to missing EFI ROM files (bug #9535)
* Windows hosts installer: fixed ADDLOCAL usage on command line (4.1.0 regression; bug #9488)
* Windows hosts installer: fixed dangling shortcut to the .chm help file (bug #9646)
* Windows hosts installer: try to fix installation error 2869 which appeared under certain circumstances (bug #9664)
* Windows hosts: VBoxHeadless should never open a separate console window (bug #3549)
* Guest Additions: fixed hang while waiting for guest execution output (4.1.2 regression; bug #9446)
* Linux Additions: add support for X.Org Server 1.11 (bug #9519)
* Linux Additions: suppress an incorrect error message and allow a shared folder to be mounted in multiple places (bug #9627)
* Linux Additions: start VBoxService correctly on openSUSE 12.1 (bug #6229)
* Linux Additions: properly finish the installation even if the compilation of the DRM module fails (which is not fatal)
* Solaris Additions: fixed memory leaks and panics while mounting (from console) and unmounting shared folders.
* Windows Additions: fixed swapped mouse cursor hotspot coordinates (4.1.0 regression; bug #9447)
* Windows Additions: fixed PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA BSOD in VBoxDisp.dll when running SnippingTool (bug #9508)
* Windows Additions: make image viewer work correctly with Aero enabled (Vista and Windows 7)
* Windows Additions: fixed incorrect window border blurs under Aero with ATI cards (Vista and Windows 7)
* Windows Additions: fixed incorrect rendering when moving 3D applications outside guest desktop and back under Aero (Vista and Windows 7)
* Windows Additions: fixed guest hangs when switching back from fullscreen text mode apps (bug #9636)
Mall Creeps
