The Best of Windows, Mac OS X and Linux on One PC: Sun xVM VirtualBox
With Mac OS 10, the numerous flavors of Vista, the endless Linux distributions and the old stalwart Microsoft XP, there are any number of operating systems that you may need to use on a day to day basis.
Partitioning off your hard drive and rebooting into another OS is a tedious process. A much more efficient method is to install an emulator that lets you travel freely between the operating systems like normal applications.
There are a number of different excellent commercial products such as VMware, BootCamp or VirtualPC. However Sun Microsystems has just updated their free and open source virtualization package, the Sun xVM Virtual Box 1.60.
The new version is a major upgrade featuring over 2000 changes including full support for Mac OS X in addition to Windows and Linux distributions.
The neatness of this program comes not just from its emulation (and its price), but its increasing compatibility with a variety of hardware and its Seamless Desktop Integration (SDI). This is big news for tech hounds who use their PCs to control more and more of their lives, such as a Linux user wanting to use Vista’s Media Center capabilities on their Xbox 360. Or for the user who needs the SDI to take advantage of programs that run exclusive to, or better on, certain operating systems. For example taking the company picnic video saved on your Windows XP work computer and editing it with Final Cut Pro on an emulated Max OS 10 (where it runs significantly smoother).
For the tech hound on a budget, the open source Sun xVM VirtualBox 1.60 is a great tool for getting the best of all worlds in one machine.
For more information and to download this software please visit here.
