Linux Desktop Virtualization Shootout
- Introduction
- Installation, Interface and Features
- Virtual Hardware and Guests
- Performance and Final Thoughts
Computer Virtualization has many uses, from increasing server capacity and reducing power consumption to making it easier to test and develop software or to simply run a different Operating System on your computer. Virtualization has become an important aspect of the functionality of todays computers and computer Operating Systems. Many that are new to Linux or new to Virtualization often are overwhelmed by the number of Virtualization options the Linux Desktop has and often ask: "What Virtualization Solution is best suited for my needs". This article will hopefully answer this question and others like it.
Linux Virtualization has come along way in the past few years. New Virtualization Solutions have been released while some have been discontinued or simply haven't been worked on in the past few years. For instance, KVM and Xen are somewhat new on the scene (Xen was first released in 2003 and KVM in 2007), while virtualization projects like Plex86 haven't been updated in years, even commercial products like Win4Lin are no longer available as a Desktop Product.
This article will cover the most popular Linux Desktop Virtualization Solutions available today, meaning that we will cover features that are suitable for Desktop users: ease of use, performance, features, etc. Since we will be focusing on Desktop Virtualization, we reduced the number of solutions down to 4, which are (in alphabetical order):
Parallels Desktop: Parallels Desktop is one of the most popular Virtualization Products for a Mac and Parallels has returned to the Windows and Linux Operating Systems with an incarnation of Parallels Desktop for Linux. For this article we will be using Parallels Desktop version 4.0.6630. Note that Parallels Desktop does require Processors with hardware virtualization support.
QEMU/KVM: The Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) is a relatively new solution in the Virtualization market and was first released in Feb 2007. It currently needs to be incorporated with Qemu to perform virtualization. For this article we will be using KVM from Linux Kernel version 2.6.33 and Qemu version 0.12.3. Note that KVM does require Processors with hardware virtualization support.
Virtualbox: Virtualbox was originally developed by innotek, which was purchased by Sun Microsystems in Feb 2008 and Sun was subsequently purchased by Oracle in January 2010. Virtualbox comes in two different versions, one released under a VirtualBox Personal Use and Evalutation Licence (PUEL) and one version released under the GNU GPL. The main differences between the two versions is the inclusion of USB and RDP support in the PUEL release.
In this article we will be using the Virtualbox Open Source Edition, which is the version released under the GNU GPL.
VMware Workstation / Player: VMWare Workstation's first release was back in 1999 and was VMWare's first product. In 2005 they released the cost-free (for personal use) VMWare Player. VMWare entered the Virtualization Market early and gained a strong foothold and has become probably the biggest player in the Virtualization Market Today. In this article we will be focusing on VMWare Workstation version 7.0.1 and Player version 3.0.1 (which is bundled with VMWare Workstation).
A Note on Xen: While deciding which Virtualization Solutions to include in this article, we took a good look at Xen. Xen is a little different than the other solutions that we looked at, first it is a pain to get going on a Linux Distribution unless the distribution includes it for you (such as Suse Linux Enterprise Server) or you utilize a Linux Distro specifically for Xen, such as from Xensource (now Citrix). The second reason that we decided not to include it in this article is the fact that it is primarily focused on Enterprise Level Server Virtualization, and used in this matter, Xen simply rocks. (Imagine moving a Virtual Machine from one datacenter to another while the machine is running)
A Note on Linux: Linux is actually only the kernel of a complete system. Many contributors like to call a complete Linux system a GNU/Linux system. The GNU stands for GNU's Not Unix (a recursive acronym) and is the system first started by Richard Stallman, then later developed with the coordination of the Free Software Foundation. The idea of GNU/Linux is to get the point of freedom across when you discuss the operating system. We have decided that our site will use the generic name Linux to signify the whole system, but please, keep software freedom in mind when reading our Linux articles.
