VirtualBox vs VMware Player? which linux?

Hi,
I'm going to be setting up two computers running Windows 7 pro to virtualize linux.
#1: HP elitebook 8460p, with 128 gb ssd and 500 gb hdd, 8 gb ram.
#2: Lenovo e420s, with 64 gb mSATA ssd and 300 gb hdd, 6 gb ram.

Any thoughts on which solution would be easier and more effective? Once the machines are set up, they won't need much fancy managing - more to install and run bioinformatics programs, handle large quantities of data, SSH into other computers to access data. Useability and speed are most important.

I'd also really appreciate thoughts on which linux distro - mint, fedora, ubuntu...? Again, useability and speed. This will not be used for primary activites (browsing, music, etc) but instead for installing and launching command-line, windows-incompatible programs).

 

I'd say VMWare player is far more stable than Virtualbox in my experience and as far as the compatibility for the virtual devices in your guest OS goes as well. It provides enough options to set up your VM and since you wont be doing much of managing after that - it is a better solution.

Regarding the linux distro it is your choice finally. I myself am a fan of openSUSE, but other than the themes and stuff, the packaging tools, other in-house control panel tools - all distros are the same for running the applications you mention.

The latest Fedora 15 comes with gnome 3 and it's UI has received mixed review. I personally hated gnome 3 and so avoid F15. Ubuntu, Mint are also good choices. Go with them if you want one-click options for installing properietary tools/codecs/drivers and such stuff. All these distros have a good community for support as well - so you should not be having any hard time looking for help.

 

I'm in love with Virtualbox. I never tried VMware player but I did some googling and it seems like virtualbox has won on some personal opinions I found. I won't compare as I don't know. I can say however, I am really amazed at what I can do in a virtualized os. I don't think you can choose poorly.

I go the other way, I run ubuntu and virtualize a few different windows systems.

 

Re-reading my post, I noticed I didn't really say anything helpful.

So to follow up... Someone correct me if I am wrong...

Virtualbox has better support for snapshots and VMware has better 3d.

Brian

 

Virtualbox is incredibly easy to use and manage (at least, compared to KVM) but I've had small hiccups with it running linux guests though none whatsoever with Windows guests. I've not used VMWare so can't comment there.

If you're looking for a distro that doesn't need codecs and everyday sort of stuff, forget Mint & Ubuntu (even Opensuse is way overkill) with all the codecs, file sharers and media players. I suggest Scientific Linux or Debian Squeeze. Quick, lightweight and simple. You can even install the XFCE desktop in place of Gnome to trim more 'fat'.

 

I've never had a problem with VMWare, I think I even managed to install OSX on there once...

Actually, I may have had a problem when I ran AMD64, but that was one of the first 64-bit CPUs out there, and I made the mistake of installing XP 64...

 

I have lucidX64 as host and use Virtual Box 4.0.10. In it I have OpenSuse, natty (with 3D Unity), LDR linux, Bodhi, Debian, as well as XP Pro SP3. I run it all on a pretty bare-bones Dell 1545 with 4 GB ram. All the linux distros run fairly slow and somewhat choppy (I expected that), but XP runs great. I use it to run a DVD copy sw (from China) and I have no slow downs whatsoever.

 

If you only want to launch CLI programs from within Linux forget all those distros with bloated desktops like Suse, Ubuntu or Fedora! Just install a plain CLI Slackware, Arch or Gentoo and you're done.

 

I agree. If all a person wanted was to try out different distros, then install away, but if you wanted, or needed, to actually use linux (in a virtual box), then install a very simple, or bare-bones distro and save all the extraneous overhead.
If you are running windows host, then you don't need to run mkv's or mp3's in linux. That's what you have windows media player (whatever version comes in 7) for.

 

Thanks for all the thoughts here. I guess you're right - it really doesn't make sense to install OS-replacement distros with music and stuff. I'm attracted to the idea of simplicity, since I'll be primary tech support on these two machines and have no experience doing this. Any thoughts on the pros and cons of the different bare-bones distros mentioned here...

scientific linux (the name is attractive to me...)
arch
gentoo
slackware
debian squeeze

Thoughts on what will be easiest for beginners in this to work with - trimmed of "fat" but still intuitive?

Also, in terms of the VMware vs virtualbox comparision, which is easier in terms of file management between host and guest OSes?

 

Basically a (well done) RHEL copy. This one belongs to the bloated category, at least when you install a desktop system. I'm not sure if that still applies for CLI installation. It's very reliable.

Lightweight and fast afaik. But I've never actually used it, so don't count on my opinion.

Highly configurable. If set up right it's lightning fast, but finding the correct setup requires lots of research. Personally I never made friends with portage. But it's definitely a good starting point if you should ever plan to try BSD. There's even a Gentoo flavour with a FreeBSD kernel which is faster in some situations but BSD support in Virtual Machines is usually not as good as Linux support.

Also fast if you skip the desktop installation, although maybe not as far as Arch and for sure not as fast as an optimized Gentoo. Slackware was one of my first distros and if Debian wouldn't exist I might use it as my main system. Most of the things I needed under BSD I learned under Slackware.

Your way to go if you're lazy and not a version junkie. With apt(itude) it has the best package management system imho which makes it almost idiot proof. As in Slackware you have to skip the desktop part of the installation. Debian stable (currently Squeeze) plays in the same league of stability like RHEL or Scientific. It also has a FreeBSD flavour.

There are two old sayings:

I think that nails it.

 

To be honest, since they're both free I would give them both a try and see which you like best.

 

In the order of ease of installation for beginners easy to hard:
Debian
Arch/Gentoo
Slackware

I have found that file management between host and guest is quite easy in both of them. VMWare supports drag and drop, I'm not too sure about Virtual Box - long time since I used one. VMWare is more stable because most of the core code in Player gets used in their Workstation/Server/Enterprise products as well. Not to mention ESXi as well. Virtual Box has come a long way to prove its stability - no doubt about that, but the last time I used it 2 yrs back when running CentOS guest on a openSUSE host, I felt it needed to be more refine in terms of configuring Virtual devices as well as the host/guest sharing options. It could have improved a lot now.

I'd say if you want to learn about Linux, ask an LFS user

 

IMHO:
in terms of install:
1.SL / Debian
2. arch
3. slackware
4. gentoo

in terms of management:
1. SL (very good howtos, since you can youse howtos from RHEL/CentOS/SL interchangeably and to high degree from Fedora too)
2. debian / arch
3. slackware
4. gentoo


This is based on my personaly experience and ofc opinions vary, be prepared that everyone will defend 'his' distribution
Basically, the more ppl use the distribution, the more likely you find the answer to your problem.

If i was to choose new distro, i'd have asked:
- how many users have the distro (the more the better)
- is there some enterprise company helping with distro development (if yes, there is likely be consistent documentation / howto database for it)
- is there good forum for the distro with friendly community behind ( aka 'LOL LOL RTFM U N00B)
- also what i need - do i want to learn about linux, or just 'click' a few options in gui and be done with it ? (some distributions have better set of gui management tools)

cheers,