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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.

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WHAT'S NEW
Version 1.6.2 is a major update. The following major new features were added:

  • GUI: fixed a bug which prevented to add more than one SATA drive from the GUI
  • GUI: fixed a regression introduced in 1.6.0: the fullscreen mode was left on every guest video mode switch
  • GUI: fixed several minor issues
  • Networking: fixed a host interface networking regression introduced in 1.6.0
  • VMM: fixed starting of VMs with AMD-V enabled
  • VMM: massive performance enhancements for AMD-V
  • VMM: stability improvements for AMD-V on Windows hosts
  • VMM: correctly detect AMD CPUs with erratum 170 (AMD-V)
  • VMM: detect inconsistent timestamp counters on certain AMD Phenom CPUs (Windows host only)
  • VMM: fixed KVM check (Linux hosts only) XPCOM: fixed several races
  • VMM: fixed a regression introduced in 1.6.0: Windows stuck during installation
  • SATA: improved performance with Vista guests
  • SATA: fixed statistics counter
  • Shared Folders: several fixes (iTunes download, speed up browsing)
  • ATA/IDE: fixed boot from CDROM if a medium was added while the boot menu was active
  • Networking: provide an Intel PRO/1000 T Server (82543GC) network device emulation which is recognized by Windows XP guests
  • Networking: fixes for the E1000 emulation (don't crash if not attached, fixed a bug in the statistics counter implementation)
  • NAT: don't crash if the guest sent a DHCPRELEASE message with an invalid IP address
  • NAT: fixed ARP reply for the NAT gateway and for the NAT name server if the guest IP range was changed Internal Networking: fixed shutdown if more than two VMs are connected to the same network
  • BIOS: allow to change the DMI informatiton (see chapter 9.13, Con'guring the BIOS DMI information, page 125)
  • RTC: fixed UIP emulation to prevent jumping of time in Solaris guests
  • Mac OS X host: fixed crashes under certain conditions
  • Shared Folders: limited users without admin rights now also can use Shared Folders on Windows guests
REQUIREMENTS
Mac OS X 10.4 or later, Intel Mac.


SCREENSHOT

Developer:innotek GmbH
Downloads:9,944
  - Version d/l:2,320
Utilities:System
License:Free
Date:06 Jun 2008
Platform:Intel
RATING
****½
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VirtualBox User Reviews (18 posts)Write A Review
Jun 9 2008
*****

IFORGOT  While this release has a few problems like clipboard sharing on an Ubuntu guest, it works much more smoothly than Fusion or Parallels, particularly when starting and suspending the VM. It doesn't cause the host to stutter when starting or stopping VMs, and resumes a VM much more quickly than Parallels or Fusion. It also offers multiple snapshots. And it's open source (mostly)!  (Version 1.6.2)

[ Reply ]
Jun 6 2008

E_COMMERCE  This will certainly improve, but right now the list of limitations is quite extensive:

– No support for Host Interface Networking or Internal Networking (NAT is slower than an adapter configured for host interface networking)

– No support for audio input

– No support for VT-x/AMD-V

– No support for raw disk access

– No ACPI information (battery status, power source) is reported to the guest

And most importantly, there is no way to set a resolution beyond 800x600!  (Version 1.6.2)

[ 1 Reply - Reply ]
Jun 6 2008
*****

MACMANUX  Great virtualization software, and totally FREE! Not quite as feature rich as Parallels or Fusion, but subjectively faster that Parallels, and with most features that average users need like the seemless mode to mix Mac and Windows applications, folder sharing, networking, USB device support and the ability to save the last state for faster start-up.

Not everything in the interface is intuitive, and for some things like how to access shared folders in the guest OS one needs to ask the help function.

But then, it's free, fast and for me also stable. A great way to run Windows on a Mac for occasional use.  (Version 1.6.2)

[ Reply ]
May 7 2008

PIETRO CRISTOFOLI  Fantastic software ... easy to use, fast and pretty versatile. If you don't need a VM with direct access to the GPU and can live without drag&drop between the host and the guest OSes, this is the best option.  (Version 1.6)

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