Technical drawbacks of using a VM ? Are there any ?

[TW.4T]

Hi all, I have a bunch of Linux Distros Im wanting to test out, and also the CP of Windows 8. I know its not practical to Partition and its Time Costly using Live CDs; so, my question is, if I was to run VBox or VMWare to run the ISOs in, what are the drawbacks of not using "native" hardware ? I understand that there may be speed issues but what other quirks should I know about before I begin ? Also, as I said, Im planning on using VBox and the 30day Trial of VMWare, is there any Distro ( and Win8 ) that will run better in one and not the other ?

Many Thanks in advance for your wise words :)

[The Laughing Man]

Use Vmware , better support , more comparability and options. As far as what will run better, you'll have to try them out.

[ichi]

I had no luck running the W8 preview with VirtualBox, although apparently others have had no problems. Anyway, if you'll just be testing operating systems you don't need any VMWare trial, VMWare Player is free and enough for what you need.

Drawbacks? Well, just bear in mind that what the guest OS sees is not the real hardware. After installing the VMWare/VBox guest tools everything should work fine, but you'll likely still find that HW acceleration performance is a bit crappy and sound might not work great.

[Bryan R.]

There aren't any "quirks" in virtualization hence it's widespread use everywhere from data centers to small business. Certainly while demo'ing software, virtualization shines. The only drawbacks you'd encounter are with older processors that don't have the latest virtualization instructions. Also, dedicated graphics support is very limited still in any virtulization software but VMware Workstation is best.

[sagum]

  On 08/05/2012 at 16:28, TW.4T said:

Hi all, I have a bunch of Linux Distros Im wanting to test out, and also the CP of Windows 8. I know its not practical to Partition and its Time Costly using Live CDs; so, my question is, if I was to run VBox or VMWare to run the ISOs in, what are the drawbacks of not using "native" hardware ?

Live CDs are great, but they can be limited still. If you're using a virtual machine, it'd be better to install the actual OS and check for updates. Sounds more like you don't want to reboot and be without Windows/internet while you play around with them rather then needing a VM.

  On 08/05/2012 at 16:28, TW.4T said:

I understand that there may be speed issues but what other quirks should I know about before I begin ?

If your CPU supports virtualisation, the guest OS should run at near full speed. What you really need to be aware of is the lack of hardware support from the guest OS. ie Drivers, and that'll be your biggest issue with speed.

  On 08/05/2012 at 16:28, TW.4T said:

Also, as I said, Im planning on using VBox and the 30day Trial of VMWare, is there any Distro ( and Win8 ) that will run better in one and not the other ?

VMware is better supported across more Guest OS, however, vbox, if it works for what you want is just as good. I'd try to go with VMWare if you can.. but it really depends what you want to do with them after you've played around with the OSs.

[Hum]

VMware eventually becomes self-aware, and takes over your computer.

[Mohitster]

There is no 3d graphics acceleration available as of now in both VMware and virtualbox for Linux distros! So, that's the foremost problem you are going to face if you need to test or run graphic intensive applications!

Other than that, everything should run fine and dandy!

[redvamp128]

The main drawbacks...That I have seen.

Limitations are based upon the Host OS (speed and number of processors), amount of memory you can spare to the VM.

VM does not have direct access to special features of hardware (such as video cards)- most use a generic video render (some use the S-3 trident) So basically it is software based render which is a bit slower. (but then again it would be just like using an onboard video and only limit is how much memory you can spare from the allotment for the VM to use for video memory.)

Bottom line -- only drawback is if you like a lot of eye-candy and would want to play a game it may have a big drawback. For what they are designed for they work perfectly.

[Miuku.]

Note that you'll be gimping IO performance considerably so some things might be quite a bit slower than on "real hardware".

[still1]

There aren't any disadvantage apart from the performance at least for personal use.

One thing i Have noticed is if you use laptop your battery capacity goes down drastically when using linux(with Ubuntu).

Maybe it was just me but wanted to give a heads up.

[Salty Wagyu]

Installing VM software tends to install additional items to your network adapter properties on the Host PC, I'm unsure if this has any negative drawbacks or if it affects performance outside of VM use.

[TW.4T]

Thank You All :)