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.
v4.3.40 [Aug 21, 2013]
- VMM: fixed restoring of the auxiliary TSC MSR in VT-x that caused host BSODs on Windows 8.1 hosts and unpredictable behavior on other hosts
- VMM: provide fake values for a couple of MSRs to make more guests happy on certain hosts
- VMM: fixed detection of VT-x on certain machines where the BIOS would not set the VMX LOCK feature bit, which affected the VM settings in the GUI
- VMM: fixed TPR threshold which caused BSODs on Windows XP guests that use the I/O APIC
- VMM: fixed PATM saved state incompatibility for software virtualized VMs
- VMM: don't fail if AMD-V isn't available if the VM is configured to use software virtualization
- GUI: fixed guest resize breakage on visual representation mode change (when switching from normal to fullscreen etc)
- GUI: make sure the guest screen is resized after restoring a VM from a saved state if the host screen size changed
- Webcam passthrough improvements including GUI support (see the manual for more information)
- Guest Control: implemented more IGuestSession methods
- Guest Control: added support for deleting and renaming guest files directories in VBoxManage
- Guest Control: various bugfixes
- API: incorrect handling of hardware UUID default value, resulting in an all zero DMI/SMBIOS UUID, which leads to Windows requesting re-activation
- 3D support: miscellaneous fixes
- Storage: fixed detection of CD/DVD media when switching from an empty to a host drive with passthrough enabled
- Storage: fixed hang of the VM process when the disk is full under certain circumstances
- NAT: listen for changes of NAT Network setting at runtime
- NAT: NAT Network DHCP server now saves leases to a persistent storage
- Main: monitor changes in host DNS configuration
- X11 Additions/3D: fix freezes starting 3D desktop
- X11 Additions/3D: fix depth buffer support
- X11 Additions/3D: fix Age Of Empires 3 rendering
- Windows Additions/3D: fix Google Earth plugin rendering
- Windows Additions/WDDM: autoresize fixes
Mall Creeps
