Virtual machines

I think I was slower than most people to use "virtual" machines, I've only just started within the last few months. I think my main problem was the fact that I had so many machines in my office. At one point I had something like 15 physical machines in my office. With that many physical machines, you don't need virtual.

Since I am "discovering" virtual machines for the first time, I wanted to try many of the more common virtual machine programs to see which is the best. I decided to test Microsoft Virtual PC, Oracle VirtualBox, and VMWare Player - all free emulators. Here's my mini-review of the three.

Virtual PC - Virtual PC wasn't the fastest, and it does have issues. For example, installing Linux requires special steps because Virtual PC doesn't support 24-bit color. Also, it doesn't support 64-bit OSes. All that said, it was my favorite of the three. What I really liked about Virtual PC is the clean UI. There is something to be said for a clean simple UI. I also liked that Virtual PC doesn't install a virtual network adapter as the other two programs do. Virtual PC feels the least invasive of the three.

VirtualBox - VirtualBox was by far the slowest, but it also had some powerful features. Unlike VPC it allows you to expose more than 1 CPU to the emulated PC. It also supports a 64-bit environment. My biggest gripe with VirtualBox is the UI has a very "Unix" feel to it. There's nothing wrong with Unix-looking UIs, except when I'm on Windows I want all the UIs to look like Windows.

VMWare Player - Player was the fastest of the three. It also had some impressive features. I did find the UI difficult to navigate at first, it lacks the flow the other two have. It also has a "skinned" UI which in my opinion is a detraction. Why does every company these days feel the need to "skin" their apps? What's wrong with a consistent look and feel. When every program looks and functions differently it has the effect of reducing productivity.

All and all these three programs were pretty good, I could live with any of the three. But ultimately I chose Virtual PC based largely on it's clean easy to navigate UI.