Amanda

Okay, Real Life #Question.

Virtualbox or QEMU? I don't do anything special, but would like to try a new emulator. Virtualbox works. However, my laptop has been having trouble with the last couple of releases. My workstation is in storage so I can't compare the difference between machines.

The 7.2.4 release had a problem with it pegging a CPU core at 100%.

The 7.2.8 branch screws with the Parcellite clipboard manager on the host machine (my laptop). I have to kill its process and relaunch it for it to function again. It also steps on Bluetooth somehow, but I've too distracted with the clipboard thing to be able to describe how.

#poll #VirtualMachine #Emulator

QEMU
92.3%
VirtualBox
7.7%
Poll ended at .
Jun 15 at 10:57pmWeb
Show threadtkJun 16
@pronounshe if you run linux already just install virt-manager for qemu and it runs out of the box mostly
Show threadNazoJun 16

@pronounshe VirtalBox is owned by a bad company, they just haven't made it as bad as VMWare. Yet. So if you can switch to QEMU, you should.

That said, wow it's so much harder to use...

Show threadAmandaJun 16
@nazokiyoubinbou The parent company is indeed a driving reason for wanting to migrate. There are a lot of architectures in QEMU that I'll probably never need. Haven't spent too much time thinking about its difficulty, but the tinkering with something new also sounds fun.
Show threadNazoJun 16
@pronounshe I just wish they'd do a proper GUI. It's... 2026 and you still have to use dinky third party options for it.
Show threadAmandaJun 16
@nazokiyoubinbou Are those third-party options something like virt-manager that @tk mentioned?
Show threadGrumpy Old Techie 🕊️Jun 16
@pronounshe You're not saying which OS the host is running.
I voted QEMU but there is quite a steep learning curve if you use it on the command line. On Mac there is UTM to manage QEMU but I use the command line there anyway.
I'm sure the other OSs will have something similar to UTM.
Because Virtualbox is a choice I assume evilcorps are not a big issue. On windows and Mac there is also VMware at no cost.
Show threadAmandaJun 16

@grumpyoldtechie Fair. The host OS is Linux.

Well, I've been using Virtualbox for years. The monstrous behavior of the Vritualbox's parent company is a driving force for wanting to change. And the last couple of versions have been giving me trouble on my laptop.

And Broadcom isn't much better the Big Red.

No stranger to the command line, but I do like the convenience and instant gratification of click and run.

Show threadGrumpy Old Techie 🕊️Jun 16
@pronounshe I’m a Mac and FreeBSD person for a long time now. I moved away from virtualbox for technical rather than ideological reasons. I used VMware fusion on Mac for convenience but all my VMs are moving to QEMU, at a very slow pace though.
I think your question is answered and I’m sure there are decent GUIs for linux available I just don’t know what they are.
There is also bhyve on FreeBSD but I haven’t tried it yet. I mostly run FreeBSD in VMs