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From: David Brown on 8 Jan 2010 04:32
karthikbalaguru wrote:

>
> A very big list is present in the below link-
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_virtual_machines
> It contains GPL versions also.
>
> Lot of flavours :-(,
> But, which is the best freely available platform
> virtual machine ?
>

It all depends on your needs.

For general use, I'd recommend Virtual Box. It's easy to install and
use, cross-platform, pretty fast for most uses, has reasonably
successful support for USB devices, and has useful guest drivers and
additions. It is very close to "free" - most of it is available open
source, and the even the closed-source bits are free cost.

If you are using a Linux host, kvm is it the other main choice. It
takes a bit more work (such as reading how-tos) to use it, but it is
solid and flexible. It is a good choice for more serious work on a
Linux host.

QEMU is the choice if you are emulating different processors.

Free versions of VMWare are a good choice if you need compatibility with
existing VMWare virtual machines - otherwise you are better off with
Virtual Box (the paid-for versions of WMWare have other features that
might make them worth the cost).

For DOS emulation, use DOSBOX.

And for multiple linux virtual servers on a linux host, something like
openvz is often a better choice, being so lightweight.


So in summary, choose Virtual Box unless you have more specialist needs.
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