The Products
There are really two competing products out there for doing virtualization on a desktop level. VMware Workstation and VirtualBox. Both have their cons and pros (which we'll get into a little lower). But the biggest thing is that VMware Workstation is a commercial product whereas VirtualBox is 100% free!
Some Basic Requirements
For each of these pieces of software, there are some basic requirements. in order to run a virtual machine, you'll need at least the following:
- 2 GB or more of memory
- 2 or more cores
- Disk space to store the images
And that's it! Each virtual machine you run will require at least 1 core and probably 512 MB or 1 GB of memory. I personally have a machine at home that I only have 4 cores and 16 GB of memory. It's the main place I consider to be my personal lab when I'm setting up training, or testing a solution, or even learning something new like Ansible or HashiCorp's Terraform.
Each image will take anywhere from 5 GB to many times that, depending on what you all install with the image. I typically use the variable-sized disks, so it uses a minimum and expands the space on the fly.
VMware Workstation
VMware was probably the first commercial product out there to allow for virtualization of machines. The company has the lion's share of virtualization in the computer industry at this point. Although Cisco UCS and Windows Hyper-V are strong contenders. With the advent of things such as Linux Containers or Docker, the need to run an OS on physical servers is fast drawing to a close. Since VMware is one of the earliest ones, they will offer the most options.
Some pros of VMware Workstation:
- It's a commercial product, so you get direct support from the manufacturer.
- There are dozens if not hundreds of virtual appliances that you can download and utilize immediately be it for training or for an out-of-the-box virtual machine.
- It's easy to install and use.
Some cons of VMware Workstation:
- It's a commercial product which costs money.
- It is not recommended as a server virtualization product. It is designed for a desktop.
VirtualBox
VirtualBox has been around for more than a decade and has become more and more polished with time. It comes in both a Linux and Windows version. It is very easy to install and use. It hasn't been around as long as VMware Workstation and doesn't offer as many bells and whistles either. But it does have a large community for support. And it's free!
Some pros of VirtualBox:
- It's free!
- It's easy to install and use.
- It has a large community for support.
- It can run on both Windows and Linux.
Some cons of VirtualBox:
- It probably shouldn't be the virtualization product to use in an enterprise environment for managing virtual machines.
- Like VMware Workstation, it is not recommended as a server virtualization product. It is designed for a desktop.
What They Both Offer
Both offer some very good features that will make managing your library of virtual machines much easier. Here are just a handful:
- The ability to clone virtual machines.
- The ability to take a snapshot of a virtual machine in the event you want to try something, like patching, and want some protection.
So Which One?
Like anything else, this comes down to what you want to do and personal preference. If you're in a commercial environment, I would recommend VMware Workstation because you get support. If you're looking for personal use, I'd recommend VirtualBox. I personally run both at home and in the office. But in the end, it's all about you and what you want.