VirtualBox, an open source solution to your virtualization problems.

A product I want to bring to light today is Oracle's very own VirtualBox, a program very familiar to both aspiring and well seasoned software developers testers. VirtualBox's sole use is for virtualization, which gives your computer the ability to mimic another computer's install of a specific operating system. What this means is that if you were a Mac user, you would run VirtualBox in a way that would pretend as though it was a Windows 7 machine. This is done through the use of virtual images, which are "snapshots" of these installs with specified hardware settings.

Image of Windows XP being run on a Linux machine using VirtualBox.

Virtualization has a number of applications, one being that it allows you to run programs that normally would only work on a specific OS. This is a common workaround for gamers that want to play a game which is only compatible with an operating system different to their own.

VirtualBox can do more than simulate software, it can apply to hardware requirements as well, such as RAM and processor capabilities. In industry, VirtualBox can be very useful for testing, allowing companies to certify target platforms for their software, as well as identifying minimum system requirements. Virtualization is also cost efficient, because it allows a company to have one high-end computer that can perform all of these simulations, rather than needing a computer for each permutation of the OS and requirements.

VirtualBox is also useful in in courses at many universities where students may have required software as part of the curriculum. A course with 100 students, for example, will feature selection of personal computers with different operating systems, service pack upgrades, and system settings. If all of these students are using VirtualBox with identical virtual images of Linux, it allows a instructor to streamline issues that students will have operating the required software, which could range from installation issues to a difference in defaulted settings. This is more relevant for computer science students, who when programming on different OSes, have to account for the differences in their code's expected behavior.

To learn more about supported OSes and about virtual box in general, go to https://www.virtualbox.org/.

"Oracle VM Virtual Box" (2004) Retrieved on March 3, 2014, from https://www.virtualbox.org/