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DESCRIPTION
VirtualBox is a family of powerful x86 virtualization products for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Presently, VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux and Macintosh hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), and OpenBSD.
VirtualBox is being actively developed with frequent releases and has an ever growing list of features, supported guest operating systems and platforms it runs on. VirtualBox is a community effort backed by a dedicated company: everyone is encouraged to contribute while innotek ensures the product always meets professional quality criteria.
WHAT'S NEW
Version 3.1.0:
Added:
- Teleportation (aka live migration); migrate a live VM session from one host to another (see the manual for more information)
- VM states can now be restored from arbitrary snapshots instead of only the last one, and new snapshots can be taken from other snapshots as well ("branched snapshots"; see the manual for more information)
- 2D video acceleration for Windows guests; use the host video hardware for overlay stretching and color conversion (see the manual for more information)
- More flexible storage attachments: CD/DVD drives can be attached to arbitrary storage controllers, and there can be more than one such drive (the manual for more information)
- The network attachment type can be changed while a VM is running
- Complete rewrite of experimental USB support for OpenSolaris hosts making use of the latest USB enhancements in Solaris Nevada 124 and higher
- Significant performance improvements for PAE and AMD64 guests (VT-x and AMD-V only; normal (non-nested) paging)
- Experimental support for EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface; see the manual for more information)
- Support for paravirtualized network adapters (virtio-net; see the manual for more information)
Fixed and/or added:
- VMM: guest SMP fixes for certain rare cases
- GUI: snapshots include a screenshot
- GUI: locked storage media can be unmounted by force
- GUI: the a log window grabbed all key events from other GUI windows (bug #5291)
- GUI: allow to disable USB filters (bug #5426)
- GUI: improved memory slider in the VM settings
- GUI: the VirtualBox website couldn't be opened from the help menu (bug #4559)
- 3D support: major performance improvement in VBO processing
- 3D support: added GL_EXT_framebuffer_object, GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array support
- 3D support: fixed crashes in FarCry, SecondLife, Call of Duty, Unreal Tournament, Eve Online (bugs #2801, #2791)
- 3D support: fixed graphics corruption in World of Warcraft (#2816)
- 3D support: fixed Final frame of Compiz animation not updated to the screen (#4653)
- 3D support: fixed incorrect rendering of non ARGB textures under compiz
- iSCSI: support iSCSI targets with more than 2TiB capacity
- VRDP: fixed occasional VRDP server crash (bug #5424)
- Network: fixed the E1000 emulation for QNX (and probably other) guests (bug #3206)
- NAT: added host resolver DNS proxy (see the manual for more information)
- VMDK: fixed incorrectly rejected big images split into 2G pieces (bug #5523, #2787)
- VMDK: fixed compatibility issue with fixed or raw disk VMDK files (bug #2723)
- VHD: fixed incompatibility with Hyper-V
- Support for Parallels version 2 disk image (HDD) files; see the manual for more information
- OVF: create manifest files on export and verify the content of an optional manifest file on import
- OVF: fixed memory setting during import (bug #4188)
- Mouse device: now five buttons are passed to the guest (bug #3773)
- VBoxHeadless: fixed loss of saved state when VM fails to start
- VBoxSDL: fixed crash during shutdown (Windows hosts only)
- X11 based hosts: allow the user to specify their own scan code layout (bug #2302)
- Mac OS X hosts: don't auto show the menu and dock in fullscreen (bug #4866)
- Mac OS X hosts (64 bit): don't interpret mouse wheel events as left click (bug #5049)
- Mac OS X hosts: fixed a VM abort during shutdown under certain conditions
- Solaris hosts: combined the kernel interface package into the VirtualBox main package
- Solaris hosts: support for OpenSolaris Boomer architecture (with OSS audio backend).
- Shared folders: VBOXSVR is visible in Network folder (Windows guests, bug #4842)
- Shared folders: performance improvements (Windows guests, bug #1728)
- Windows, Linux and Solaris Additions: added balloon tip notifier if VirtualBox host version was updated and Additions are out of date
- Solaris guests: fixed keyboard emulation (bug #1589)
- Solaris Additions: fixed as_pagelock() failed errors affecting guest properties (bug #5337)
- Windows Additions: added automatic logon support for Windows Vista and Windows 7
- Windows Additions: improved file version lookup for guest OS information
- Windows Additions: fixed runtime OS detection on Windows 7 for session information
- Windows Additions: fixed crash in seamless mode (contributed by Huihong Luo)
- Linux Additions: added support for uninstalling the Linux Guest Additions (bug #4039)
- Linux guest shared folders: allow mounting a shared folder if a file of the same name as the folder exists in the current directory (bug #928)
- SDK: added object-oriented web service bindings for PHP5
REQUIREMENTS
Mac OS X 10.4 or later.
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| VirtualBox User Reviews (44 posts) | Write A Review |
 | Oct 29 2009 |
SURFSPIRIT Ya This Apps is Great, But Has a Huge Fail! Don't Drag and Drop between the Guest OS and the native one!!!!!! (Version 3.0.10) | |
| [ 1 Reply - Reply ] | |
Replies:
 | Oct 31 2009 |
SCOTTISHWILDCAT Hardly a "huge fail", I've been using VirtualBox for years and never missed this feature. (Version 3.0.10) | |
 | Sep 27 2009 |
MAC4DREW VirtualBox is great. I needed a program that would let me virtualize Windows, so I could run an EXE every now and then. I was tired of installing a trial of Parallels or VMware just to see it expire after a few weeks. And I didn't want to pay for what was entirely a matter of convenience, seeing as how my Mac is perfectly capable of booting Windows on its own. In steps VirtualBox. I installed Windows XP Service Pack 2 in a virtual machine a few weeks ago, and it's been working flawlessly ever since. All the standard features you'd expect from a Virtual Machine are there, basic configuration is easy, and the thing is rock-solid. Perhaps the configuration of the more advanced features could be a little easier, but the documentation for everything is pretty great. If you know what you're doing, you'll be able to get Shared Folders, USB Device Filtering, and loads of other stuff running with just a few clicks. If you need these advanced features, but you're not super computer-savvy, it may be best to use Parallels or VMware instead. But for everyone else who knows what they're doing, save your $60 and go with VirtualBox. (Version 3.0.6) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
 | Jul 20 2009 |
TECHGEEK The best virtualization software have ever had!!!!!!! THE PART WHICH I LIKE THE MOST:- I COULD PRACTICALLY INSTALL ANY OS INTO THE VIRTUAL DRIVE!!!! This is I think the best feature I could ever had!!!! I have installed Xubuntu 9.04 into a 8 GB Virtual Drive and I must say it is great! It was for the first time I was installing an OS myself! And when in My Own Computer(The Hos) the net was on I could also access net in Xubuntu 9.04(The Guest)!!!! So these things make this a superb program if you want to test several Operating Systems!!!!! (Version 3.0.2) | |
| [ 3 Replies - Reply ] | |
Replies:
 | Aug 5 2009 |
E_COMMERCE Calm down there. Isn't the point of ANY virtualization software to allow you to install any x86 OS into a virtual drive? Nothing to see here, move along (to vmWare). (Version 3.0.4) | |
 | Aug 6 2009 |
ILGAZ Mac users who were running PowerPC/68K have never seen Virtual Machines like x86 users. All they had was MS infested (later) Virtual PC which was horribly slow because it was emulating a CPU. So, be a little understanding when one is impressed by a hypervisor based virtual machine. Not everyone around are switchers you know. (Version 3.0.4) | |
 | Nov 17 2009 |
E_COMMERCE I would expect anyone looking at this to be at least passingly familiar with similar products (VMware Fusion and Parallels Desktop). Switcher? I've been on a Mac since '86. (Version 3.0.12) | |
 | Jul 12 2009 |
PEDRO FARDILHA If, like me, you use VirtualBox to run Linux or BSD machines you should be aware of a probleml with this 3.0.x series and the guest additions. IF you have 3D on or you gave more than 64 Mb or ram to the graphic card the GUI will not boot properly. I've seen this happening with different guest OSs, namely Ubuntu 9.04 (both normal and the new Netbook Remix), CentOS, Debian, etc. (Version 3.0.2) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
 | Jul 1 2009 |
WIZZARD1 The one good file that I did manage to download now works. I have to run the uninstall twice with a reboot in between. I think the uninstall also leaves files behind that don't work with 3.0 as well. As well, it does not install well upgrading 2.2.4. Since the dev does not use standard file locations and 'fixes' some file locations it is probably good to run the uninstall twice with a reboot. This however does not explain the 400 bad request at 98.53% when attempting to download from their site. Don't think it is an overload situation but a server reboot might clear the issue. (Version 3.0) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
 | Jul 1 2009 |
WIZZARD1 Someone needs to contact whoever posts for download at VirtualBox/Sun. I have been trying to download 3.0 since it was released. Either it downloads and the app will not be start (bounces once) or it will not finish a download - gets to 98.53% and then hits 400 bad requests. I have tried to get ahold of them to make them aware but so far have been unsuccesful. There is nothing wrong with my connection at all as I have no issues downloading anything else including stuff from Sun and also much larger files. There is nothing blocking this. Please correct and repost a good build or fix your download servers. (Version 3.0) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
 | Jun 30 2009 |
E_COMMERCE Still throwing files all over the disk when it has no business doing so. - "/Library/Extensions" is not a standard location (but at least it's not in /System). - StartupItems have been deprecated for over four years. - Mixing in VirtualBox items in /usr/bin instead of /usr/local/bin is annoying. All of this makes it hard to remove, hard to migrate to a new system, and hard to backup (it you're not running Time Machine). What's annoying is that none of this is necessary - kernel extensions can be dynamically loaded from inside the application bundle, the StartupItem can be changed to a launchd agent and loaded dynamically, and the command line utilities are optional (and could be installed by the app on first run if requested). All this detrius is unnecessary and sloppy. (Version 3.0) | |
| [ 5 Replies - Reply ] | |
Replies:
 | Jun 30 2009 |
E_COMMERCE Heh, even worse - it hardcodes the path to the application in the StartupItem - so you can't move it elsewhere without rewriting a root-owned bash script. What utterly horrid design. (Version 3.0) | |
 | Jun 30 2009 |
NEONBLUE2 I haven't installed it yet but can you move the files and put aliases in their place? You could move everything into the application bundle. (Version 3.0) | |
 | Jul 1 2009 |
STAR-AFFINITY Maybe contact the ones working on VirtualBox and ask what they're doing? :) Here perhaps? http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Mailing_lists (Version 3.0) | |
 | Jul 1 2009 |
E_COMMERCE Just a follow-on - the application doesn't function at all if you move it out of it's default spot at /Applications. Refuses to launch - tiny blip on the Dock and vanishes. As for posting on mailing lists - do you really think that would do any good whatsoever? When I see a company that doesn't get it as badly as this, I've found they're not going to have an epiphany and suddenly understand why this stuff is important just because I post back and forth on a mailing list. It just wastes everyone's time. No, they can go their way and screw up, and I'll continue on mine and stick with VMware Fusion (a lovely native Mac product from a company that had no Mac experience whatsoever beforehand, and did an absolutely smash-up job). (Version 3.0) | |
 | Oct 6 2009 |
SCOTTISHWILDCAT FWIW, not being able to move the application out of /Applications is a known issue, which has been discussed at length in their public bug tracker. (Version 3.0.8) | |
 | Jun 8 2009 |
BCWINTERS I needed to do some work on a Windows-only database, and decided to give VirtualBox a try before shelling out for Fusion. And boy am I glad I did. This program has a surprisingly terrific level of polish and excellent (if somewhat techy) documentation. While the UI isn't truly native it's very intuitive and quite nicely finished, and anyway you only touch the UI for a little while when setting up a new guest OS. I had XP and my development tools installed in less time than it would have taken on a real PC (thanks to disk images instead of CDs!), and only needed to tweak one setting in the prefs to get access to my office's PPTP VPN--I think it was switching the "Attached To" setting to "Bridged" instead of "NAT," IIRC. From there on out, it was smooth, speedy sailing. I love you, VirtualBox. (Version 2.2.4) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
 | May 30 2009 |
PISSNAROUND 3d acceleration seems to be problematic for all guests. (Version 2.2.4) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
 | May 29 2009 |
UNXADM Frequent updates and stability make this a great free alternative to Parallels. They can't even get an update out that supports Ubuntu 9.04. Virtualbox has had already 2 updates since Ubuntu 9.04 came out. Highly recommend it. (Version 2.2.4) | |
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