Best Virtual Machine Software Programs. Now Its Easy To Build Virtual Machines Like A ProThere was a time when you could Google virtual machine software and only VMware and Java would come up. But those days are long gone, and now almost everyone has gotten into the virtualization business. And though VMware is my favorite, I wanted to be fair to VMinstall readers and all the vendors who have virtual machine products. So Im recommending anyone considering a career in virtualization, or businesses reviewing solutions for their new data center or private cloud, to test and evaluate more than just VMware products before deciding which virtual machine is best for their future. Pick Your Favorite ColorHow To Install Windows 2000 On Virtualbox Images OracleListed below are 1. VM software. Five will install on a desktop and can run various operating systems seamlessly within the same pane of glass. How To Install Windows 2000 On Virtualbox Images LinuxDespite being happy with Windows 7, I installed Windows 10 on my main PC some time ago and have been. MS Paint, the first app you used for editing images, will probably be killed off in future updates of Windows 10, replaced by the new app Paint 3D. Microsoft lists. VirtualBox provides Guest Addition modules for Windows, Linux and Solaris to enable automated logons on the guest. When a guest operating system is running in a. Download a virtual machine program start building VMs like a Pro. Pick from the best virtual machine software for Windows, Linux Mac. Start with FREE. A live CD also live DVD, live disc, or live operating system is a complete bootable computer installation including operating system which runs directly from a CD. Having a problem trying to put this on an old Dell Latitude. Doesnt matter if Im trying to install Windows 3. MSDOS, if I try to boot from one of the floppies. Latest trending topics being covered on ZDNet including Reviews, Tech Industry, Security, Hardware, Apple, and Windows. Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems in 2010, and since that time Oracles hardware and software engineers have worked sidebyside to build fully integrated systems and. And then there are 5 more choices that are better suited for installing on server hardware. They all have their pluses and minuses. Does and donts. Lovers and haters. Chose one software, or two, or three, or all 1. VM Software Products That Run on a Desktop OS1. VMware Player is a FREEWARE for personal use software that will allow you to mount and run VMs directly from a Windows or Linux desktop. Though it cannot create new VMs from an ISO, it is still a powerful virtual machine software. There is also a VMware Player Plus version with enhanced features, but it will require purchasing a license. Click Here To Download VMware Player. Oracle VM Virtual. Box is another cool FREE virtual machine software if youre looking for an alternative to VMware Workstation. And its an excellent choice for beginners. Great for lab testing and running from the desktop, Virtual. Box installs on Windows, OS X, Solaris, and Linux. Unlike VM Player this FREEWARE allows the creation of new virtual machines from ISO or importing. And will run most 3. VM.  Click Here To Download Virtual. Box Oracle also has OVM which is not listed in my top ten3. VMware Workstation is a full featured virtual machine software that requires licensing. This software is for advanced users who require running multiple systems. For example, it works well for developers needing database, web and application servers all in the same virtual space. It also allows saving projects and cloning. VMware Workstation also interfaces with v. Sphere via an API and is fully supported by VMware. And with too many features to list, I can say from experience its a robust solution for running virtual machines on a desktop. Try VMware Workstation 1. FREE for 3. 0 daysParallels is a full featured virtual machine software which began especially to run a Windows virtual machine on Apple OS X. It was a great way to have both worlds and run Windows applications on a Mac. Cutting Master Software. Interestingly, you can run Windows on a Mac now a couple different ways, but legally you are still not allowed to run OS X on anything except Mac hardware. Although some have proven it is possible. Parallels require purchasing a license. Click Here to Seamlessly Run Windows from a Mac. VMware Fusion requires purchasing a license too and is another way to run Windows on a Mac VM Software Products That Run on Server Hardware hardware virtualization6. Parallels Virtuozzo Containers has been around for a while and from what I can find it is used most by hosting companies for providing Virtual Private Servers aka VPS. But to be completely honest with you, Ive never used it or worked anywhere Virtuozzo was deployed. Im not even aware of any business use cases running Virtuozzo for private cloud. Although after reading about it for this post, I would agree it seems like a good choice for hosting companies. Click Here To Download a Free Trial. Microsoft Hyper V Once upon a time there was Microsoft Virtual. PC, then there was Microsoft Virtual. Server, and now theres Microsoft Hyper V. A couple of years ago I remember going to a demo and watching Hyper V crash, but since then a lot has changed. Hyper V can now do many of the same things most enterprise virtualization software boast about. Live migration, HA, templates, and importing VMs from VMware and EC2 using System. Center VMM.  The only real hang up is the lack of popularity with the Linux community. Hyper V works best with Windows operating systems and it powers Microsofts own Azure Cloud. Click Here To Download Hyper V. Xen. Server Xen. Source is popular open sources virtual machine software that was acquired by Citrix. But then Citrix made the mistake of trying too hard to make a profit from Xen. Source and lost many of their key supporters in the process. Since then Citrix has seen their error and has reopened the source code. Xen. Server is available for FREE but you can also buy the fully supported version as well. Its a powerful solution used in many enterprise environments for hosting servers and desktop operating systems. And linked to Xen. Center it can do just about everything v. Sphere can such as live migration, HA and importing and exporting VMs to the cloud. The key need to know is Amazons EC2 Cloud uses a highly customized version of Xen. Click Here To Download Xen. Server. 9. KVM Kernel Based Virtual Machine is another of my favorites. I guess you can say its the second best choice. KVM is a full virtualization solution for Linux and is found already on most Linux Distros. Its actually preferred by more Linux gurus than VMware or Xen. Server, and it fits perfectly into Open. Stack. There are FREE or fully supported versions from Red. Hat and it does all the cool stuff too. But like Hyper V with Linux, KVM has limits with virtualizing Windows. KVMs popularity has really been moving up on the list of virtual machine softwares due to its success with Open. Stack. Marrying the 2 products together gives similar functionality as VMware v. Sphere, although there are some limitations with hosting Windows VMs, which are now taken care of by Open. Stacks ability to also support Hyper V and ESXi. Click Here To Download KVM. VMware ESXi does it all and more. For large enterprise virtual server deployments of Windows or Linux, VMware ESXi is the best solution in my opinion. Ill tell you upfront it is not a cheap solution but VMware does offer a FREE version of ESXi to get you hooked. And dont expect too much from the FREE version because most of the valuable features rely on v. Center and shared storage integration, as well as licenses for HA, v. Motion, DSR, and storage DRS. Since the 9. 0s VMware has been evolving. It started as a clumsy little software that used to be installed on a Windows desktop. Then from there, it evolved into GSX for Windows Servers. And then again it morphed into ESX which eliminated the need for Windows and booted to a Redhat kernel. And then in version 4, it became ESXi which now runs on a custom Linux kernel. VMs on ESXi run Windows and Linux operating systems near flawlessly. Its also a powerhouse for many large virtual desktop deployments running on VMware View or Citrix Xen. Desktop. And more recently VMware was in the news because they will soon power Googles Chrome virtual desktop cloud and provide access to Windows application. How cool is that VMware Engineers are well paid and in some datacenters, they run the show. Designing and building software defined datacenters consisting of best of brands servers, network and storage hardware. With dedication and online VMware training, you could become a v. Sphere expert and join in the fun.