VirtualBox is ridiculously simple to set up and get virtual machines going. Shared folders, shared clipboard and much more are no issue.
But.
It eats resources. The installed virtual machines (VM) run relatively slow. What have you found to be feature comparable - and most importantly more resource-efficient - alternatives for running VMs under Linux?
Virt-manager with qemu-system, although if you use the kvm driver for both performance should be about the same I think.
Don’t forget virtualbox has a lot of configuration options that may improve performance, Ive never had a problem with it but also never need high performance from a VM.
Under Linux, the recommended route is KVM/Qemu, with Virt-Manager as the GUI front-end for them. You will need to follow tutorials to install it correctly, as it requires special steps, e.g. adding them to specific usergroups. But once it works, it works well.
Not for the faint of heart, but I’ll keep it in mind.
Yea, the installation isn’t too difficult. Looking at my groups as well I think it’s only the
libvirtgroup that you have to add a user to for KVM/QEMU with Virt-Manager, but the same could be said for VirtualBox as I believe you have to still add the user to thevboxusersgroup if you were to install it instead.
Definitely if you’re on Linux, use Qemu (and the best is to install a GUI to use it after)
I’ve looked at it. It comes up a lot. Thank you.
Did you use virt-manager with it?
I use Quickemu for mine, makes it really quick and easy to get a new system up and running.
Using virt-manager, never tried quickemu
Really wish we could get in the habit of recommending GUIs first, not last.
Really wish we wouldn’t have to separate the two. This adds a complication layer for exiting Windows users.
Ideally: install app (insert name). Run and enjoy.
Without any kind of software behind GUI this is almost useless and I think that CLI (or even TUI) are today so underrated that we should give more and more power to them instead of GUI
virt-manager is my go-to. There’s also Gnome Boxes, but I’ve never used it myself. virt-manager is the best I’ve tried, personally. Both use KVM, so they should be much more resource efficient
https://virt-manager.org/ is a no brainer. Built upon libvirt/Qemu/KVM it’s way more powerful and pretty much just as easy to use. There is zero reasons to use anything else.
How easy is it to convert a VirtualBox machine+hdd to Virt Manager?
Pretty damn easy.
qemu-img convert -f vdi -O qcow2 Windows10.vdi Windows10.qcow2Here’s a more complete guide: https://cubiclenate.com/2024/05/30/converting-vdi-to-qcow2-step-by-step-guide-for-virt-manager-migration/
As jet points out, QEMU for actual hardware virtualisation.
There is one relevant thing, which is not exactly in the same category, but does somewhat similar thing:
containers
most popular example being Docker
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Containerization_(computing)
containers don’t emulate whole hardware stack like virtual machines do, they just run the guest OS on top of host OS.
so because they don’t put resources towards emulating hardware, they are much more resource efficient.
so if your problem is “I’m running Fedora but I want to run something that for some reason runs just on Ubuntu”, then you could use containers for that.
containers are mostly used in headless environments (as in servers, no GUI), so running and displaying desktop Linux inside them is a bit tricky, but it can be done.I’ve been using https://containertoolbx.org/ recently to manage my “other distro” requirements. It doesn’t do anything special but works nicely as a wrapper around podman and does all the bind mounts and uid mappings so you can just enter your $HOME as though you have set up your account in a new OS.
for running GUI app, I use flatapp which is a sort of a container / sandbox
Qemu/Kvm or VMware(Sadly only works on some distros and vmware works best with Windows)
I haven’t used it nearly as much as VirtualBox but Boxes (flatpak) is definitely a breeze to use. It uses KVM under the hood I think. If your use cases are complicated it might abstract away too much though.
Especially on Linux, libvirt/qemu on kvm is a no-brainer. It works, it’s fast, the setup is practically effortless
Surprised no one is saying Xen
This “Beginners Guide” they have there is a serious turnoff. They might want to consider a more lightweight and friendly intro to their software. 😄
Still, if I find the time to go through this massive wall of text, I will.
Qemu
I don’t know if it’s more resource-efficient, but when I wanted to start using VMs for work, I knew VirtualBox would not be a viable choice (thanks to Oracle and their horrible licensing), so I chose GNOME Boxes and have been pretty happy with it. I didn’t do any tests so I can’t say for certain , but it doesn’t seem like the resource consumption is that much different.
VMware workstation is free, it’s not open source but it’s faster than VirtualBox, if you want GPU passthrough KVM is the only choice but require quite bit of effort to setup
What about VMware Workstation Pro? Or are you looking for something FOSS? It’s easy to download without creating an account and I found it easier to setup that VB. I actually switched because I’d been having connectivity issues with VB and it took me a year to realise it was a VB issue.
There’s nothing better than virtual box for desktop environments, especially after you install the guest tools.
I don’t know what you mean by “it eats resources” - of course it does, you’re emulating and entire system. What are your expectations?
Virtual Box is a Type 2 hypervisor, which means it’s running on top of the OS, and not directly on the hardware.
KVM is a Type 1, which runs directly on the hardware itself.
There are pros and cons to each, and VBOX is a great piece of software, but it is more resource intensive than other options available.
And it performs very well, especially for gui applications. It even supports multiple monitors for the guest.
For running a desktop it’s clearly superior and “fast enough”. I used it to run my primary development environment for years.
