If you’ve never used one before, virtual machines can be overwhelming. Not that they’re difficult to use, but they’re unlike any other kind of app and that unfamiliarity is what scares most off. In practice, virtual machines are simple and extremely useful.
To increase storage space, you can add a new virtual hard disk to a virtual machine. Workstation Player supports up to four IDE devices, 60 SCSI devices, 120 SATA devices, and 60 NVMe virtual disks.
The toughest hurdle to getting started is deciding which virtual machine software to use. Several options exist, but if you don’t want to pay a cent, then only two are worth discussing: VirtualBox and VMware Workstation Player.
In this post, we’ll compare both of them and help you decide which one you should use. For this comparison, we’ll be looking at VirtualBox 5.1.26 and VMware Workstation Player 12.5.7.
Price
While VirtualBox and VMware are both free, they aren’t equally free.
The core engine that drives VirtualBox is licensed under GPLv2 and open source in the truest senseOpen Source vs. Free Software: What's the Difference and Why Does It Matter?Open Source vs. Free Software: What's the Difference and Why Does It Matter?Many assume 'open source' and 'free software' mean the same thing but that's not true. It's in your best interest to know what the differences are.Read More, but the “extension pack” is under Oracle’s proprietary license and is only free for personal use, educational use, or evaluation purposes.
VMware Workstation Player is the free version of VMware Workstation Pro, meant strictly for students, non-profit organizations, and personal or home use. The catch is that you have to sign up for the occasional VMware promotional email. Commercial use requires the Pro version. (VMWare also offers the popular option for virtual machines with VMWare FusionVMware Fusion 11 Makes Make Virtual Machines Even BetterVMware Fusion 11 Makes Make Virtual Machines Even BetterVMWare Fusion version 11 is here. Here's why it's a great update for anyone who needs to run a virtual machine on their Mac.Read More.)
For casual home users who just want to run old and deprecated software or test new operating systems, they’re both free so you have nothing to worry about.
Ease of Use
To compare, I installed Elementary OS 0.4.1 in both virtual machines, then ran both of them (not at the same time) and used them as I would any normal machine.
VirtualBox has a wizard that walks you through the creation of a new virtual machine. It makes recommendations for how much RAM and hard drive space to set aside based on your system’s hardware. Launching a virtual machine is as easy as clicking Start, and again it walks you along every step of the way. I was up and running within minutes.
Learn more in our guide to setting up VirtualBox.
VMware Workstation Player’s setup wizard is even easier, allowing you to tweak aspects that can only be done in VirtualBox after the fact (e.g. how many CPU cores to dedicate). Unlike VirtualBox, VMware doesn’t recommend values so first timers may feel unsure how to proceed. But overall? VMware’s interface is simpler and less intimidating.
Failed To Open Virtual Machine Vmware Player
Learn more in our guide to setting up VMware Workstation PlayerRun Multiple Operating Systems At Once With VMware PlayerRun Multiple Operating Systems At Once With VMware PlayerWe’ve lavished attention on VirtualBox here at MakeUseOf, and for good reason. However, VirtualBox isn’t your only option for creating and using free virtual machines. VMware Player, VMware’s free product, is every bit as good...Read More.
Performance
VirtualBox is among the slowest virtual machine solutions currently available. It was never very fast to begin with, but ever since it was acquired by Oracle in 2010, performance has slowly but surely degraded.
To be fair, if you’re going to run a virtual machine, you should be doing it on a powerful computer because virtualization is slowHow Does Emulation Work and Why Is It So Slow?How Does Emulation Work and Why Is It So Slow?You've probably heard of emulation before, but do you know what emulation actually means or how it works?Read More. And if your computer is powerful enough, you won’t notice the relative slowness of VirtualBox. It’s not terrible — it just isn’t as fast as it could be.
VMware Workstation Player, on the other hand, has excellent performance. When running the same guest operating system in both virtual machines with the same amount of resources allocated, I find that VMware is without question faster and more responsive.
If you have to run virtualization on a mediocre system, or if you plan on spending a lot of time in a virtual machine every day, then VMware is clearly superior. But if your system is top-of-the-line, you can go with either one.
Compatibility and Reliability
One of the more interesting uses for a virtual machine is the ability to clone an existing operating systemCreate a Virtual Machine Clone of Your Existing Windows Hard DriveCreate a Virtual Machine Clone of Your Existing Windows Hard DriveVirtualization allows one operating system (OS) to run on another OS. We'll show you how to create a virtual machine clone of your system and how to use it.Read More and virtualize it on another computer. Programmers, for example, can clone their Linux development environment, virtualize it on a Windows computer, and keep working. In order to do that, the virtual machines need to be compatible with both systems.
This is one area where VirtualBox surpasses VMware. You can set up a virtual machine, save a snapshot, move the virtual data as is, and immediately launch it on another computer as is. It will be exactly as you expect. Snapshots and clones aren’t available in VMware’s free version.
However, when it comes to reliability, things flip around. When using VirtualBox, you’re likely to run into bugs and glitches. I’ve used VirtualBox every so often throughout the years, on several different computers, and it has never been a 100 percent smooth ride. On the other hand, VMware’s stability and dependability are its main selling points.
Other Points of Interest
If you’ve gotten this far and still aren’t leaning in one way or the other, then the deciding factor comes down to which software’s features and quirks you prefer. Here are some notable points that may push you off the fence in either direction.
Virtual Machine Vmware Player DownloadVirtualBox
VMware Workstation Player
Features in Both
VirtualBox vs. VMware: The Winner Is…
You didn’t really think one would be strictly better than the other, did you? They’ve both been around for quite a while, and there’s a reason why both still exist: they’re both excellent.
However, a quick summary of which one you might prefer:
Virtual Machine Vmware Player 2017
Wondering whether you need virtualization software after all? Consider these practical reasons to use a virtual machine7 Practical Reasons to Start Using a Virtual Machine7 Practical Reasons to Start Using a Virtual MachineThe term 'virtual' has been co-opted in so many ways. Virtual reality. Virtual RAM. Virtual schools. But Virtualization in the context of PCs can be confusing. We're here to clear it up.Read More. For starters, a virtual machine can help you run Mac apps on WindowsHow to Run Mac Apps on Windows 10How to Run Mac Apps on Windows 10Have you found amazing software that's Mac-only? Here's how you can run Mac apps on your Windows 10 machine.Read More!
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