xVM VirtualBox in Perspective
Sun Solaris CTO Tim Marsland talks in this video about xVM VirtualBox, talks about its technical features and tells you why it is so special and important for developers in all technical environments.
What is Sun xVM VirtualBox?
Sun xVM VirtualBox is a free, open source desktop virtualization platform that runs on Microsoft Windows, Sun Solaris, Apple Mac OS, or Linux systems, and lets users create a number of virtual machines onto which they can install whatever operating system they need to use, for whatever purpose. A single computer can run multiple OSes and applications simultaneously, with virtually no performance degradation, which enables developers to work on programs for different platforms, and power users to use applications that require different operating systems.
xVM VirtualBox provides for ultimate flexibility and allows easy user input, and APIs are exposed at every level including Web services. Its open source model requires no license keys or registration, and its flexibility, ease of use, and high performance, have encouraged more than 4 million people to download VirtualBox in less than 18 months.
Sun's xVM Strategy
Sun Solaris CTO Tim Marsland and Marc Hamilton give a chalk talk on Sun's virtualization strategy in this video.
How Does xVM VirtualBox Fit into Sun's Virtualization Strategy?
xVM VirtualBox was part of Sun's acquisition of Germany's Innotek GmbH in February 2008. The product became the latest component in Sun's growing portfolio of virtualization technologies called Sun xVM. Virtualization has become increasingly important in all classes of datacenters as power and other infrastructure costs have escalated, and important for all classes of hardware, from servers and grids, down to desktops and embedded devices.
Each virtualization deployment platform has different requirements, and that is why xVM VirtualBox is designed specifically for the desktop. By being a desktop system, it enables developers to use xVM VirtualBox to develop and test applications, and then move the applications to Sun's xVM Server where the application will be hosted on an enterprise-class deployment platform suitable for datacenter and grid computing environments. When deployed, Sun xVM OpsCenter can automate the management of virtual resources to boost availability and minimize downtime.
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Breaking News!
Downloads of xVM VirtualBox just passed the 5,000,000 mark, further demonstrating the popularity and usefulness of this open source productivity tool.
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How Does Sun xVM VirtualBox Work?
In this video Solaris technical marketing manager Angel Carmacho tells you what it's like to get started with xVM VirtualBox.
Who is xVM VirtualBox For?
The primary audience for xVM VirtualBox is developers because it allows developers to write software to any OS in the datacenter from one system. Traditionally, developers had to maintain multiple hardware systems in order to write multi-platform applications, but xVM lets users develop multi-tier, cross-platform applications on all their development platforms. While developers are the primary audience, power users can also use xVM VirtualBox to run applications from different OSes on a single system. They might do that if their application doesn't run the latest OS or if they want to insulate a virus-prone application from the rest of their system.
What xVM VirtualBox Looks Like
This slide show takes you through installing Windows Vista in a virtual machine running in xVM Virtual Box on a Macintosh.
How is xVM VirtualBox Different?
The biggest difference between xVM and its competitors is that it is a free and open source product that requires no registration or license keys and downloads and installs quickly. In addition, xVM VirtualBox can be run on a larger number of host operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, Linux, Sun Solaris, and Apple Macintosh, than any other virtual desktop product. That gives developers maximum flexibility to develop applications on their preferred platform. xVM VirtualBox also supports practically any operating system as a guest OS. This means you can, for example, run the Windows OS in a virtual machine on a Mac or Linux box. Together, that means developers can design programs for almost any platform while using their favorite platform as a host.
VirtualBox exposes APIs to make them readily accessible, offers support for advanced USB devices on the host to easily integrate into the guest OS, and includes support for remote desktop protocol (RDP) server, which allows users to connect to any virtual graphics card over the network. Unlike competitive offerings, these features are mature and well tested.
How Do I Get xVM VirtualBox
Just click the Get It! Button at the xVM VirtualBox website--the software download of xVM VirtualBox is less than 20 megabytes, and takes just minutes to install. While you're at it, join the VirtualBox community to share ideas and resources, get technical help and join mailing lists. OpenxVM.org is a hub for datacenter-grade open source virtualization projects. The site aggregates news, blogs, downloads, white papers, community and other information that helps users with open source virtualization projects from development to production.
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