WAY2WEB: Web Design & business...

What is a Virtual Machine?

Virtual PCs have really taken off in the past few years, with the introduction of various packages from VMware, Microsoft, Parallels, and many other software producers. Virtual Machines are basically an entire operating system running on top of your main computer system.

In other words, you can have two, three, or more operating systems running simultaneously on the same physical machine! This means I could have my Apple computer switched on, with Windows XP, Ubuntu and ReactOS all running in seperate windows on top of each other. Cool, eh?

But what does this mean for the average joe? Well, running virtual machines really opens up the possibilities for a number of professions. For example, as a web designer, I do my design work on my Apple machine, but then test them all on Windows XP and Linux virtual machines. This means I don't have to have excess hardware around the room just for testing.

Another example may be a CAD designer. They could have a Linux machine, but need to perform a certain CAD operation on Windows XP. Rather than buying an extra computer to do this, they could fire up VirtualBox, and simply run that on top of their Linux computer.

Software options

A number of both commercial and free Virtual computer programs are now avaliable. On the PC, there is VMware or the free Microsoft Virtual PC, which both work very well. On Mac, you can use something such as Parallels, and VMware Fusion, or on Linux you have VirtualBox and QEMU, which are both free.

The software you choose is up to you, and your requirements will dictate the best software for you. To help with the decision, Wikipedia has a wonderful comparison table of all the features of various software. This table compares a plethora of virtual machines, many of which are free, or open source.

Virtual Machines open up a whole new world of possibilities, and are can help you accomplish many otherwise tough tasks which would require multiple operating systems. I hope this article has been of some assistance to you, and I wish you good luck with your virtual machines!