Learn more about Virtual Box & virtual environments.
So you want to know more about virtual machines? Good choice.
Virtual machines are a very useful way to test other operating systems without the need to install them to a partition of their own. Of course you can still do this, but why bother. Programs like VirtualBox create a virtual environment that allows you to install other operating systems on to a virtual hard drive. The virtual hard drive is just a file that is held on your current hard drive, but will hold all of the information for the chosen OS & any programs that you install, just like a normal hard drive.
Obviously if you choose to use a large amount for this drive, then the space on your real drive will decrease, i.e. say you choose to have 30GB to install your virtual Ubuntu Linux system, then your real drive will decrease by 30GB, unless you use a dynamically expanding virtual drive. In other words, you can choose to have a 30GB virtual drive, but the actual size of the file will increase & decrease depending on how much information you have on your virtual drive. This is by far the better way to run a virtual machine.
You can have as many virtual machines as you want, as long as your hard drive has enough free space. Maybe you want to test as many Linux distributions as you can, until you find the right one for you. Well I would say this is one of the best ways to do it. You can even use an ISO file to install the operating system, as if it was a real CD/DVD. With most Linux systems you are able to run the OS straight from the CD without needing to install it, but to get the most out of a virtual environment I would suggest that you install the new OS to a virtual drive. This way it gives you a chance to try out the OS without loosing your changes at the end of the session.
There are a few programs that allow you to run virtual machines, as follows:
Vmware: http://www.vmware.com/
MS Virtual machine: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx
VirtualBox: http://www.virtualbox.org/
Vmware needs to be purchased, but is very good at its job.
MS Virtual Machine is free to download, but will only install on Microsoft Windows systems.
VirtualBox is free to download & will install on MS Windows, Many Linux Distro's, MAC OS & Solaris.
Obviously the choice is yours, but I would give VirtualBox a try. What have you got to lose?
If you do decide to use VirtualBox, please read the manual: http://www.virtualbox.org/download/1.6.2/UserManual.pdf
This should give you all the information that you require to get a virtual machine up & running. If you have any problems then a good place to visit is the VirtualBox Forum: http://forums.virtualbox.org/
I hope that this little bit of information has helped you decide to run a virtual machine. If you require any help, then I would be pleased to assist as much as possible, just use the contact link above.
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Virtual Box 
