VirtualBox --
professional, flexible, open
VirtualBox is a general-purpose full virtualizer for
x86 hardware. Targeted at server, desktop and embedded use, it is now
the only professional-quality virtualization solution that is also Open
Source Software.
Some of the features of VirtualBox are:
- Modularity. VirtualBox has an extremely modular
design with well-defined internal programming interfaces and a
client/server design. This makes it easy to control it from several
interfaces at once: for example, you can start a virtual machine in a
typical virtual machine GUI and then control that machine from the
command line, or possibly remotely. VirtualBox also comes with a full
Software Development Kit: even though it is Open Source Software, you
don't have to hack the source to write a new interface for
VirtualBox.
- Virtual machine descriptions in XML.
The configuration settings of virtual machines are stored entirely in
XML and are independent of the local machines. Virtual machine
definitions can therefore easily be ported to other computers.
- Guest Additions for Windows, Linux and
Solaris. VirtualBox has special software that can be installed
inside Windows, Linux and Solaris virtual machines to improve
performance and make integration much more seamless. Among the features
provided by these Guest Additions are mouse pointer integration and
arbitrary screen solutions (e.g. by resizing the guest window). There
are also guest additions for OS/2 with somewhat reduced functionality.
- Shared folders. Like many other
virtualization solutions, for easy data exchange between hosts and
guests, VirtualBox allows for declaring certain host directories as
"shared folders", which can then be accessed from within virtual
machines.
A number of extra features are available with the full VirtualBox
release only (see the "Editions" page for
details):
- Virtual USB Controllers. VirtualBox implements a
virtual USB controller and allows you to connect arbitrary USB devices
to your virtual machines without having to install device specific
drivers on the host.
- Remote Desktop Protocol. Unlike any
other virtualization software, VirtualBox fully supports the standard
Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). A virtual machine can act as an RDP
server, allowing you to "run" the virtual machine remotely on some thin
client that merely displays the RDP data.
- USB over RDP. With this unique
feature, a virtual machine that acts as an RDP server can still access
arbitrary USB devices that are connected on the RDP client. This way, a
powerful server machine can virtualize a lot of thin clients that merely
need to display RDP data and have USB devices plugged in.
Versions
¶
VirtualBox comes in different versions, depending on your needs. Please
see the Editions
page for details.
Screenshots ¶
We have put together a small tour of the VirtualBox features on the Screenshots
page.
Press Coverage ¶
We maintain a link list to press articles about VirtualBox on the Press page.
Academic Papers ¶
There is a list of papers referencing VirtualBox on the Papers page.
다운로드 링크: http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
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