Stephen Withers
Thursday, 26 April 2007 11:32
Business IT -
Technology
The open source VirtualBox virtualisation software is now available for Mac OS X in the form of a public beta.
Already established on Windows and Linux hosts,
VirtualBox allows the use of a variety of guest x86 operating systems including Windows, Linux and OpenBSD. It includes add-on software for Windows and Linux guests to improve performance and to deliver better integration with the host system.
A release version of VirtualBox for Mac OS X should be completed by the end of June.
Germany-based developer Innotek uses an interesting dual-licensing model. The full VirtualBox package is available free of charge for personal, educational or evaluation use. Personal use is generously defined - "if you install it on your work PC at some large company, this is still personal use." Enterprise licences - and optionally support - are sold by Innotek.
There's also the VirtualBox Open Source Edition, which is offered under the GPL but lacks certain items from the full package, namely RDP, USB and iSCSI support, plus the ability share folders from the host system with the guest OS.