Runs almost any Intel-based guest system. Can run on Windows, OS X, Linux, and Solaris host systems. Drag-and-drop and shared clipboard between host and guest systems. Cons Clumsy interface. Slower and less stable than commercial alternatives in testing. Buggy drag-and-drop functionality. No automatic printing to printers installed on host system.
Bottom Line VirtualBox is a free, powerful virtualization utility that runs a vast range of Intel-based guest OSes, but it has some rough edges and lacks features offered by the commercial competition. Oracle's VM VirtualBox is a free app that does most of the things commercial virtualization apps like, and can do. Like them, VirtualBox runs almost any version of Windows, Linux, and most other Intel-based operating systems on a Mac, Windows, or Linux desktop. Unlike those paid apps, VirtualBox has one major advantage.
That doesn't, however, mean that anyone who needs virtualization should make it their automatic first choice, however. The Cost of Free Software In the case of VirtualBox, at least, you get what you (don't) pay for. Most of the features that make Fusion and Parallels worth the money aren't available in VirtualBox.
OSBoxes offers you ready-to-use Linux/Unix guest operating systems. If you don’t want to install secondary OS alongside with your main OS but still want to use/try it, then you can use VirtualBox or VMware on your host operating system to run virtual machine.
VirtualBox can't print automatically to the host system's printer. It requires you to perform manual setups of integration features that commercial apps perform automatically.
It's fussy and unreliable when you try to drag and drop files between the host OS X system and the guest Windows and Linux system. The VirtualBox website has an extensive page with suggestions for debugging drag-and-drop problems, which is helpful, but it also says a lot about what it's like to use the software. If you want to use a virtual guest system for testing or gaming, then VirtualBox is all you need.
But if you want to use a Windows app for getting work done on your Mac, pull out your wallet and buy a commercial app. Getting Started With VirtualBox VirtualBox isn't nearly as automated as its commercial rivals, but it isn't hard for moderately experienced users to navigate. You'll need an installation ISO or DMG file for, Linux, or any other OS that you want to install. Supported OSes include all flavors of Windows, many flavors of Linux, BSD and Oracle's Solaris and JRocketVE, plus, BlackBerry's QNX, and long-in-the-tooth systems like DOS, Netware, and OS/2. If you hunt for instructions online, you can even install Openstep, one of the ancestors of OS X. And I successfully imported virtual machines created by VMware, though the procedure wasn't intuitive, and I had to uninstall the VMware drivers from the virtual machine first.
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Highly Customizable As in Parallels or Fusion, you can install a virtual Windows, Linux, or other guest system by following a wizard, and you can use an advanced dialog to specify dozens of custom settings. Unlike Fusion and Parallels, VirtualBox disables its host-guest integration features by default. You have to track them down in the settings menu to switch them on.
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That menu gives you fine-tuned control over shared clipboard and drag-and-drop features, so you can specify whether these features operate only from host to guest, guest to host, or both ways. You can also fine-tune exactly what items appear on VirtualBox's main menu. That's a level of customization offered by few apps of any kind. Speedy but Clunky In my informal tests under OS X, VirtualBox was fast enough when booting and running applications, though not as speedy as its commercial rivals. With features such as on-the-fly screen resizing it's notably awkward where its rivals are smooth.
When you resize a Windows guest by dragging its window border, the guest desktop briefly looks jagged and distorted. It's something like the effect of an overheating video card on a real system. Parallels and Fusion, in contrast, resize the guest window smoothly. It's only an aesthetic flaw, but it typifies VirtualBox's occasional rough edges. Like its rivals, VirtualBox offers a feature that runs a Windows application in a single window, but implements it in a notably clunky way. The commercial apps display the Windows app as an OS X-style window.
In contrast, VirtualBox merely crops the visibility of the Windows desktop so that a thin frame of the Windows desktop remains visible around the Windows app, and more of the Windows desktop becomes visible when you drag the edge of the frame. The whole effect is amateurish and distracting. You Have Options If you want a no-cost method of running Linux under OS X, you may find the free version of more appealing, and Veertu conveniently lets you download multiple Linux flavors from inside the app. And, if you want more features, you've got an upgrade path to the $39.99 version (which is an in-app purchase). No such option exists with VirtualBox.
Unlike VirtualBox, whose interface feels like a throwback to older, hacker-friendly software, Veertu has a modern, minimalist interface designed to work with a minimum of fuss. I haven't mentioned another free virtualization option for running some Windows software on the Mac: Urge Software's. It doesn't run a full Windows system like VirtualBox, Veertu, Fusion, or Parallels. Instead it uses the open-source WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator) software as an environment for running Windows apps. Wineskin Winery can be tricky to set up, however, and doesn't work well with complex apps. But if all you want to do is run a few simple apps or games and you don't want to spend a lot of money, Wineskin Winery may be a good choice.
Fusion and Parallels both support corporate and enterprise users with remote management software, so it's possible to store virtual machines on a centralized server—or the cloud—and run them from desktop machines. The closest equivalent for VirtualBox is an open-source project called that describes itself as 'the poor man's' virtual infrastructure client, and provides basic client-server features, so that, for example, you can store a virtual machine on a server and access it from either your laptop or your desktop. Does the Job If you want to test or run Windows or other operating systems under OS X, VirtualBox gets the job done. You can even use the same guest systems with VirtualBox for Windows and Linux as well as VirtualBox for OS X. If what you're looking for is no-cost virtualization that works with almost any Intel-based OS on any major platform, VirtualBox is your only choice. But you're better off paying for VMware Fusion instead for these same sorts of tasks. It provides the same broad cross-platform flexibility as VirtualBox, and adds far superior integration features, better speed, and better reliability.
Editors' Choice VMware Fusion is a top Mac virtualization choice, along with Parallels Desktop, which is notably the most user-friendly virtualization software I've tested for the Mac.