Create virtualized environments with these five apps
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Virtualbox 1
Virtualbox 1
ntThis screenshot gallery is also available as a post in the TechRepublic Five Apps Blog.
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ntThe need to run multiple operating systems for everything from software testing and experimentation to portable productivity environments is vital in the IT world. Perhaps you are also an operating systems enthusiast that wants to try out and use older software that simply isn’t compatible with modern versions of Windows, or you want to build secure sandboxes for students to mess around in and learn without needing to rebuild the host PC. Whatever the reason, virtualization products can get the job done without needing to grab a spare PC or partition your physical system drive. Here is a list of five apps that satisfy this requirement.
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ntCredit: Matthew Nawrocki for TechRepublic
Bochs 1
Bochs 1
nt2. Bochs
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ntHaving been on the virtualization scene since the late 90s, Bochs is known by many as the old timer of the bunch. Although it’s rather archaic by design and hard to configure, Bochs is probably the only VM software I have used that has supported particularly exotic operating systems, such as NeXTstep 3.3 or Apple Rhapsody DR2. Beyond the niche it serves as a product for operating system historians and primitive legacy applications, Bochs is mostly considered an academic curiosity for learning the ins and outs of virtualization.
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ntCredit: Matthew Nawrocki for TechRepublic
Bochs 2
Bochs 2
ntCredit: Matthew Nawrocki for TechRepublic
QEMU 1
QEMU 1
nt3. QEMU
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ntIf you’re looking to not only virtualize an x86 environment at reasonable speeds, but also want to test software on SPARC, ARM, PPC and MIPS platforms, QEMU can help. The multi-arch emulation capabilities are decidedly hit or miss and can be rather sluggish, but no other VM software is capable of this feat currently. If you prefer not to deal with the command-line, a companion app called QEMU Manager can be downloaded and used on top of QEMU to manage VM instances in an easy to use GUI.
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ntCredit: Matthew Nawrocki for TechRepublic
QEMU 2
QEMU 2
ntCredit: Matthew Nawrocki for TechRepublic
VmWare 1
VmWare 1
nt4. VMware Player
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ntThe freeware (for non-commercial use) cousin of VMware Workstation, Player has added more features over the years. Lately, the product name has become somewhat of a misnomer, since you can now create full-fledged virtual machines, much like its bigger brother. The VMware Unity mode allows for seamless integration of the VM right onto your host desktop, which arguably is superior to VirtualBox’s implementation of the same technique. Commercial use is subject to license fees starting at $99.99.
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ntCredit: Matthew Nawrocki for TechRepublic
VmWare 2
VmWare 2
ntCredit: Matthew Nawrocki for TechRepublic
Paragon 1
Paragon 1
nt5. Paragon Virtualization Manager 12
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ntAlthough not in the business of running virtual machines per-se, Paragon’s tool allows you to migrate a Windows install on real hardware to a virtual instance using “P2V Migration” as well as work with virtual hard disk files. What is neat about this is that you can mount virtual disks and work with data directly in your host environment without ever having to touch the guest operating system. This application sells for $59.95.
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ntCredit: Matthew Nawrocki for TechRepublic
Paragon 2
Paragon 2
ntCredit: Matthew Nawrocki for TechRepublic
