# VMWare vs VirtualBox



## alie (Aug 24, 2009)

Hi Guys,

I am not to familiar with VMs. Which VM is faster on Linux, vmware or VirtualBox ?

and if i use VirtualBox under FreeBSD, will it as fast as i run VMWare under Linux ?

Please share your experience with these 2 VMs, thanks!


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## vivek (Aug 24, 2009)

VMWare - works like a charm under Linux and FreeBSD only works in guest mode. You cannnot install VMWare workstation or server under FreeBSD.

VirtualBox - work in progress for FreeBSD, so you have to wait for some time. http://wiki.freebsd.org/VirtualBox


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## adamk (Aug 24, 2009)

vivek said:
			
		

> VirtualBox - work in progress for FreeBSD, so you have to wait for some time. http://wiki.freebsd.org/VirtualBox




Or you can just try it for yourself since it's in ports and works (for me, anyway) rather well.

Adam


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## sim (Aug 24, 2009)

adamk said:
			
		

> Or you can just try it for yourself since it's in ports and works (for me, anyway) rather well.
> 
> Adam



Agreed. VirtualBox on FreeBSD (from ports) works fine for me, running Windows 7-RC as guest.  Haven't pushed it hard but it's nice to know it's there, just in case.

sim


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## gr1ml0ck (Aug 24, 2009)

I use Vbox with XP for business needs and find a slight performance boost with FreeBSD rather than Linux as the host OS.

However.. network bridge functionality works under linux but has not yet been implemented on the BSD version.

I am yet to use VmWare so have no input on its performance.. might give it a go tho.


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## CodeBlock (Aug 24, 2009)

I use vbox....when it works:  http://forums.freebsd.org/showpost.php?p=37845&postcount=5

The only other one I tried was QEMU and it was extremely slow.


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## graudeejs (Aug 25, 2009)

CodeBlock said:
			
		

> I use vbox....when it works:  http://forums.freebsd.org/showpost.php?p=37845&postcount=5
> 
> The only other one I tried was QEMU and it was extremely slow.



No it wasn't, try bochs


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## hydra (Aug 25, 2009)

VirtualBox works great, you should try it.


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## xiaoj (Aug 25, 2009)

I am using VBox on my FreeBSD box, it's great i enjoy it. But the key feature what i need network bridge functionality was not implemented on FreeBSD, this make me disppoint.

how about bochs? does bochs support the network bridge feature ?


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## adamk (Aug 25, 2009)

I can't say if bochs does, but qemu certainly supports bridged network, and is probably faster than bochs.


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## alie (Sep 3, 2009)

Thanks guys,

But i was wondering about the VMWare ports performance under linux emulation on FreeBSD. Is it slow ?

I just tried VBox under FreeBSD, it seems more stable on FreeBSD than on my LinuxMint


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## DrJ (Sep 3, 2009)

alie said:
			
		

> i was wondering about the VMWare ports performance under linux emulation on FreeBSD. Is it slow ?



If you mean the old VMware 3.2.1 version in ports, it actually is rather snappy.  Sadly, it is terribly dated.  The worst thing is that you can only use it on single CPU or single core systems.  If you have more, you have to turn them off.

That is a show stopper.


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## fonz (Sep 3, 2009)

Just wondering: if I'm not mistaken Virtualbox can run VMWare images. Has anyone tried this with FreeBSD? I have this VMWare image of an Ubuntu system that I need to do some lab work with. I'd hate to have to use Windows for this x(

Alphons


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## phoenix (Sep 3, 2009)

QEmu can also load (and optionally convert) VMWare disk images.


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## Eponasoft (Sep 4, 2009)

Right now, I'm attempting to build virtualbox but its list of dependencies is ABSOLUTELY INSANE. This will take all day.


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## bigearsbilly (Oct 18, 2009)

Interestingly, 
I get bridged network on BSD but not on Linux.


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## actionM (Oct 18, 2009)

I'm a web developer so I have to use VM's all the time so I can run Internet Explorer.  I can only tell you about my experiences on Linux since I'm new here, but I had a really hard time with virtualBox.  It been over a year since I used it tho.    I used it for 6 months.  It was hell.

VMware was a perfect gentleman.  No complaints at all.  I used it for a year.

KVM is almost perfect and free! I've used it a month.  It's my new favorite.

Also, the qemu + vmware player was a nice free combo.  You can make the images with qemu, then play them with the free vmware player. Not a bad option if you enjoy free + GUI.


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