VirtualBox

VirtualBox

VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product 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). See “About VirtualBox” for an introduction.

Presently, VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh and OpenSolaris hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Windows 7), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), Solaris and OpenSolaris, 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 Sun ensures the product always meets professional quality criteria.

Hot picks:

• VirtualBox Web Console project site and blog
• Whitepaper: Optimizing the desktop using Sun VirtualBox (reg. req’d)
• Watch the VirtualBox Live Show
• VirtualBox press coverage: http://blogs.sun.com/VirtualBoxBuzz

Homepage: http://www.virtualbox.org/

Download: http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

License: Freeware

VMware

VMware

Improve the efficiency and availability of IT resources and applications through virtualization. Start by eliminating the old “one server, one application” model and run multiple virtual machines on each physical machine. Free your IT admins from spending so much time managing servers rather than innovating. About 70% of a typical IT budget in a non-virtualized datacenter goes towards just maintaining the existing infrastructure, with little left for innovation.

An automated datacenter built on the production-proven VMware virtualization platform lets you respond to market dynamics faster and more efficiently than ever before. VMware vSphere delivers resources, applications—even servers—when and where they’re needed. VMware customers typically save 50-70% on overall IT costs by consolidating their resource pools and delivering highly available machines with VMware vSphere.

• Run multiple operating systems on a single computer including Windows, Linux and more.
• Let your Mac run Windows creating a virtual PC environment for all your Windows applications.
• Reduce capital costs by increasing energy efficiency and requiring less hardware while increasing your server to admin ratio
• Ensure your enterprise applications perform with the highest availability and performance
• Build up business continuity through improved disaster recovery solutions and deliver high availability throughout the datacenter
• Improve enterprise desktop management & control with faster deployment of desktops and fewer support calls due to application conflicts

Homepage: http://www.vmware.com

Download (ver. 7.1): http://downloads.vmware.com/d/info/desktop_downloads/vmware_workstation/7_0

License: Your VMware Workstation license entitles you to 30 days