VMWare Workstation vs. Virtualbox

Zinn

Zinn

2[H]4U
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Jan 31, 2010
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Can anyone chime in with pros and cons?

I've been running a Debian guest in Virtualbox for about a year. Just installed VMWare Workstation Trial on a whim and playing with it.

It definitely feels "faster" than Virtualbox, but are there any other compelling reasons to fork over $250?
 
Basically VMWare is a more streamlined, optimized, user friendly setup. It's got better support for graphics in a VM. And, as you've noticed, the performance is higher because of all the work VMWare's put into its platform.

But VirtualBox does just fine on its own. It's performance is less, but...free?
It can have some problems in clients, like Ubuntu running Unity, because it doesn't have bare metal access to the GPU.

If you want to:
Be able to do graphics work within VMs.
Have problems with VirtualBox in clients.
Eventually want to push into an ESX lab-type setup.

Then go with VMWare.

If these aren't burning concerns for you, I would stick with VirtualBox.
 
Biggest complaint about VirtualBox...cannot pass through USB 3 drives. Really VirtualBox? Really? haha

You should give Hyper-V a shot as well. It's free.
 
If you just want the better performance, VMware player - give it a shot

And it's lower-case W people :p
 
If it's only for running linux inside your windows machine, then definitely just use VMware player as you're not doing anything that requires you to pay the high price tag with your vm (unless you are ?)
 
I definitely need the Workstation features (like virtual network editing and snapshots)

Took the plunge. $250 isn't that much for good software, and I really appreciate the speed boost over Virtualbox.
 
Zinn said:
I definitely need the Workstation features (like virtual network editing and snapshots)

Took the plunge. $250 isn't that much for good software, and I really appreciate the speed boost over Virtualbox.
Click to expand...

Worth every penny.
 
I just upgraded to VMWare Workstation 11 (from 9) on my personal setup not too long ago. It's VERY nice.

Still, I wouldn't look askance at VirtualBox. We actually use it in-house at work. We're not running that many VMs. And all the important ones are running off SSD. It works great.
 
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I've used Vbox for years and it's always worked well for what I need. I have noticed that the Windows version seems like it gets more and more issues with every release though. Seems like it always crashes any more when I shut down a guest.
 
For VMs on my workstation, I use Vbox. For VMs that are always running / need better storage / networking / performance, I run on my ESXi box, and remote into them.

Vbox on my mac has some performance issues, but minimizing the Vbox window, and using Windows Remote Desktop to get into the VM works much better for some reason xD
 
If this is just for you and not business or you trying to learn more about VMware stuff, I'd stay I'm vb. Who cares if your VM runs a little faster does that actually get you anything?
 
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