VirtualBox

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Oracle VM VirtualBox

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Screenshot
VirtualBox 6.0.10 in Windows 10  (host system) with FreeBSD  (guest system) in the window.
Basic data

developer Oracle
(originally Innotek )
Publishing year January 15, 2007
Current  version 6.1.12
( July 14, 2020 )
operating system Linux , Microsoft Windows , macOS , Solaris , Genode operating system framework
programming language C , C ++ , Python , assembly language
category Virtualization , emulation
License GNU General Public License, version 2
German speaking Yes
www.virtualbox.org

VirtualBox is virtualization software from the US company Oracle , which was originally developed by InnoTek Systemberatung GmbH from Baden-Württemberg. After being acquired by Sun Microsystems in February 2008, it was named Sun xVM VirtualBox because Sun incorporated it into its xVM portfolio. Sun Microsystems was acquired by Oracle in 2010, which Oracle VM VirtualBox has now also incorporated into its VM portfolio. However, the free variant kept the original name.

VirtualBox can be used on the operating systems FreeBSD , Linux , macOS , OS / 2 or eComStation , Solaris , Windows and Genode as a host system on x86 (32 bit) and x86-64 systems (64 bit).

In turn, x86 or x64 operating systems can be used as guest systems. Drivers , kernel modules and extensions are supplied for a large number of operating systems ; these are available for selection when setting up a new virtual machine .

overview

VirtualBox was developed by the Weinstadt- based company Innotek (originally InnoTek Systemberatung GmbH ). First Innotek had the Hypervisor Virtual PC from Connectix in support of the operating system OS / 2 helped. After Connectix had been bought by Microsoft , Innotek began developing VirtualBox in 2004 and, among other things, gained authorities as users. In January 2007, Innotek made VirtualBox available as free software for the first time. In February 2008, Innotek was acquired by Sun Microsystems . Sun Microsystems, in turn, was bought by Oracle in January 2010. Since this takeover, VirtualBox has been distributed by Oracle.

From version 1.3.2 (beginning of 2007) up to and including version 3 (end of 2010), two different versions (called editions) with different licenses were available: Oracle VirtualBox with all functions under a proprietary license ( PUEL ), which is available for personal as well as any use in Educational institutions could be used free of charge, and VirtualBox Open Source Edition (OSE) , which lacked various functions and which was under the GNU General Public License (GPL). As of version 4.0 of December 22, 2010, Oracle only provides an edition under the GPL, which roughly corresponds to the earlier Open Source Edition and can be expanded with modules. Only the range of functions has been expanded to include USB 1.1 support. The functions of the proprietary version 3 are now outsourced to the Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack module , which is again under the PUEL. To switch between the two versions, you only need to install or remove the additional package.

Version 9 of PUEL falls under Personal Use (English for personal use ) even if an employee in a company which is under the PUEL parts personally installed and used. Therefore only an automatic installation of the Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack or the guest additions in the guest system is excluded . B. by the system administrator and also use with remote maintenance software (such as VNC ), but not commercial use - as long as it is personal. From version 10 of the PUEL, which specifies July 20, 2017 as the date, commercial use is explicitly excluded. With version 5.1.30 of October 16, 2017, the PUEL of the Extension Pack was updated to version 10. As a consequence, the VirtualBox Extension Pack can only be used personally free of charge in companies up to version 5.1.28 from September 13, 2017.

Functions

Hard disks are emulated in container files, also referred to by VirtualBox as Virtual Disk Images (VDI for short) . In addition to its own file format, VirtualBox can also work with hard drive files from VMware virtualization products (with the file extension “.vmdk”), the “ Virtual Hard Disk ” format (with the file extension “.vhd”) from Windows Virtual PC , HDD files from Parallels as well as dealing with images in QED ( QEMU enhanced disk ) and QCOW ( QEMU Copy-On-Write ) format of the emulation and virtualization software QEMU . In addition, iSCSI objects can be used as virtual hard disks, whereby the iSCSI initiator required for this is already included in VirtualBox. These foreign formats can also be converted with the command line tool VBoxManager, which is part of VirtualBox.

The free GPL edition of VirtualBox emulates in the guest system u. a. the following components:

The "About VirtualBox" window of the Open Source Edition from version 5
The "About VirtualBox" window of the Open Source Edition up to version 4.3 showed the mascots of some supported guest operating systems

The graphic resolution is limited to 800 × 600 or 1024 × 768 pixels without a corresponding driver (as a guest extension ) .

The VMs can optionally be operated via several front ends :

  • a graphical user interface (GUI) that uses the Qt graphics library , but in which not all options of the console program have been implemented ( VirtualBox)
  • a console program ( VBoxManage)
  • a Python shell ( VBoxShell)
  • an SDL program ( VBoxSDL)
  • a remote desktop protocol server running in the console ( VBoxHeadless, formerly VBoxVRDP)
  • via web server ( vboxwebsrv) and script ( phpVirtualBox)

The virtualization extensions of the current Intel CPUs with the designation VT-x and its AMD counterpart AMD-V are used, if available. Newer functions of these instruction set extensions such as nested paging / rapid virtualization indexing are also supported.

For systems without VT-x / AMD-V or with manual deselection of these functions, VirtualBox has the "Raw Mode". VirtualBox tries to run as much code natively as possible. In most cases, the guest system's ring 3 code runs natively on the host system. If the guest system tries to execute ring-0 code, the host system instead executes it on ring-1 (which is normally not used). If it is not possible to execute code natively, it has to be executed by an emulator based on the QEMU source code . Since the execution of ring 0 code in ring 1 leads to a large number of exceptions (privileged instructions may only be executed in ring 0), VirtualBox operates a kind of in situ patching. The guest code is analyzed for problematic segments at runtime and immediately before execution with the help of a disassembler component (CASM) and, if necessary, changed or replaced by a patch manager (PATM) in such a way that exceptions are reduced and the execution speed is increased. In many cases, the classic Patch Manager approach is more efficient than VT-x / AMD-V, but there are limitations in compatibility with less common guest systems.

Supported Operating Systems

Since VirtualBox provides an x86 processor in a virtual environment , operating systems written for this processor architecture are also supported , both as guest and host operating systems. The virtualization limited so on to create a VM , the processor corresponding to the actually installed in the system processor. In contrast to QEMU , the system processor is not emulated , which would normally require more computing power .

The following host systems are supported (current version):

Linux ( kernel from 2.6)
Ubuntu (04/18 LTS, 03/19 and 10/19), Debian (9 and 10), Oracle Linux (6, 7 and 8), RedHat (6, 7, 8), Fedora (30 and 31), Gentoo , openSUSE (15.1) and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (12 and 15)
Microsoft Windows
Windows Server 2012 , 2016 and 2019 , Windows 8.1 and Windows 10
Apple Mac or macOS
High Sierra (10.13), Mojave (10.14), Catalina (10.15)
Oracle Solaris
Version 11; experimental support in the Open Source Edition (OSE) , which was developed by former Sun developers in their spare time.
IBM OS / 2 and eComStation
VirtualBox in version 1.56; Version 5.06 is in development

In addition, there is also a start program that can be used to make VirtualBox for Windows operating systems easy to transfer ( portable ) and start it. This start program is developed and maintained independently of Oracle by the German nLite community in the AutoIt scripting language .

Mac OS X / OS X / macOS from version 3.2 can also be run as a guest system, which is only permitted on Apple hardware for licensing reasons. Since Windows can also be installed on any Intel-based Mac computer using Boot Camp , macOS as a guest system is also possible under Windows as the host system.

As of version 2.1, the supported guest systems can use both 32-bit and 64-bit virtualization regardless of the host system, provided the host system's processor supports this. In addition to the operating systems already listed as supported host systems, the following systems can also be virtualized:

It is entirely possible to run VirtualBox with other guest operating systems. Activating the virtualization extension of modern x86 processors (with Intel VT-x, AMD-V with AMD) can help to run an otherwise unsupported operating system in the virtual environment of VirtualBox.

Guest additions

The Guest Additions from VirtualBox, which are only available in English, expand the integration between host and guest systems. These are available for Windows from NT 4.0 and OS / 2 Warp as binary data (as a kind of driver CD), for Linux and Solaris as source code and installation package and are provided in the virtual CD drive within the VM. The following components are expanded:

  • Graphics card driver
    • the mouse pointer can leave the VM window without having to use the "host key"
    • the graphic resolution is expanded to a maximum of 64,000 × 64,000 pixels in 32-bit color depth; this enables the multi-monitor mode
    • the graphic resolution is immediately adapted to the window size in the host
    • "Seamless mode" - the program windows of the guest system can be placed freely on the work surface of the host system
    • OpenGL support (currently only for the 32-bit version of Windows XP and Windows Vista as well as FreeBSD, Linux and Solaris, the official support for Linux only includes newer kernels and popular distributions)
    • Experimental Direct3D 8 and 9 support for Windows 2000, Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 guest systems
  • "Common folder" - the host system and guest system can share or synchronize folders with each other (unidirectional and bidirectional data transfer)
  • Time synchronization between host and guest system
  • automated Windows logons using VBoxGINA

The guest additions are under the proprietary license (PUEL), but can be freely distributed through an exception in the license. From version 4, the new Compiz- based user interface Unity of the Linux distribution Ubuntu is also supported. There are no guest additions for Windows versions of the 9x line and other operating systems, and only a limited number of Linux distributions (Fedora / Red Hat, Ubuntu, openSUSE) are officially supported. The guest additions are also not available for Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server or from Mac OS X Lion Standard and Server , as these only play a subordinate role as a guest system.

Features of the proprietary module

Some functions that are also included in the Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack :

  • virtual USB 2.0 interface ( ICH6 - EHCI )
  • virtual USB 3 interface ( xHCI , from VirtualBox 5.0)
  • Virtual USB devices that can be used in the guest system even though there are no corresponding drivers on the host system
  • the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is fully supported and allows a VM to operate an RDP server
  • USB over RDP, which allows an RDP server in a VM to use USB devices from thin clients

The module is available free of charge for private use under the PUEL and for corporate use under a proprietary license.

history

version publication Description / changes
Older version; no longer supported: 1.0.37 April 12, 2005 First published version, which was still sold mainly to corporate customers under a proprietary license; Overall, updates 1.0.38 appeared on April 27, 2005, 1.0.39 on May 5, 2005, 1.0.40 on June 17, 2005, 1.0.42 on August 30, 2005, 1.0.44 on October 25, 2005, 1.0 .46 on November 4, 2005, 1.0.48 on November 23, 2005 and 1.0.50 on December 16, 2005.
Older version; no longer supported: 1.1.2 February 3, 2006 In addition to general performance and stability improvements, a manual was included for the first time and the guest additions for Windows were packed into an installation program; In total, updates 1.1.4 appeared on March 9, 2006, 1.1.6 on April 18, 2006, 1.1.8 on July 17, 2006, 1.1.10 on July 28, 2006 and 1.1.12 on November 14, 2006.
Older version; no longer supported: 1.2.2 November 14, 2006 The Linux Additions have been expanded to include support for X.org 7 , VRDP has been accelerated and virtual hard disks can now be up to 2 TB in size; Update 1.2.4 was released on November 16, 2006.
Older version; no longer supported: 1.3.2 January 15, 2007 In addition to the proprietary version, a free edition was also available for the first time: the licenses were the Personal Use and Evaluation License (PUEL) and, in a reduced version of VirtualBox, the GPL ; with version 1.3.4 that came ALSA -support (under Linux added) and version 1.3.6 , the graphic was VRAM increased limit to 128 Mebibyte; Overall, updates 1.3.4 were released on February 12, 2007, 1.3.6 on February 20, 2007 and 1.3.8 on March 14, 2007.
Older version; no longer supported: 1.4 June 6, 2007 Version 1.4 added support for 64-bit Linux systems and Mac OS X / Intel as the host system; In addition, since this version the memory images for virtual hard disks in VMDK format (for Virtual Machine Disk ) of the VMware virtualization products can be used directly; Support for serial interfaces was also added, and USB devices can now be dynamically assigned to a virtual machine and returned to the host system; access to the guest systems in the virtual machines is now possible via the integrated RDP server thanks to session shadowing from several RDP clients at the same time; In addition, there are numerous bug fixes and individual improvements.
Older version; no longer supported: 1.5 September 3, 2007 Starting with this version, VirtualBox also supports 64-bit Windows (XP and Vista) as the host system; In addition to further bug fixes and detailed improvements, virtual serial interfaces, Intel PXE 2.1 network boot capability, the guest add-ons for OS / 2 Warp and seamless windows have been added, with the help of which windows of the emulated Windows guest system are integrated into the host system and thus on the same Desktop can be placed like the rest of the host system's program windows; Support for USB 2.0 and audio output via PulseAudio (version 1.5.4 ); Version 1.5.6 is the last version still published by Innotek; Overall, updates 1.5.2 appeared on October 18, 2007, 1.5.4 on December 29, 2007, and 1.5.6 on February 19, 2008.
Older version; no longer supported: 1.6 April 30, 2008 New in this variant already published as "Sun xVM VirtualBox" is the Solaris host system support, a web service programming interface , virtualized Serial ATA - AHCI - controller (hardware) for guest system hard disks and experimental support for PAE ; Since then, the emulation has also included a Sound Blaster 16 emulation in addition to the AC'97 audio standard ; the guest additions are now also available for Solaris and the seamless window mode also works in Linux and Solaris guest systems and (with version 1.6.2 ) an emulation of the "Intel PRO / 1000 T Server (82543GC)" network card has been added, which is supported by Windows XP is supported out of the box; Overall, updates 1.6.2 were released on June 6, 2008, 1.6.4 on July 30, 2008 and 1.6.6 on August 26, 2008.
Older version; no longer supported: 2.0 September 4, 2008 In this major update, the graphical user interface was fundamentally revised. In addition to the switch from Qt version 3 to version 4, a direct graphical user interface for Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard” was created; Also new is the support of 64-bit guest systems in a 64-bit host environment, as well as the support of memory images in VHD format ; there are also numerous bug fixes and detail improvements; Overall, the updates 2.0.2 appeared on September 12, 2008, 2.0.4 on October 24, 2008, 2.0.6 on November 21, 2008, 2.0.8 on March 10, 2009, 2.0.10 on July 21, 2009 and 2.0 .12 on October 20, 2009.
Older version; no longer supported: 2.1 December 17, 2008 Hardware virtualization support is extended to Mac OS X hosts with this release, and experimental support is available for OpenGL (32-bit versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista only); Support for 64-bit guest operating systems on 32-bit host systems, which is also experimental, requires a 64-bit processor with virtualization functions in the hardware and runs more slowly than with 64-bit hosts; with version 2.1.2 there was an initial support for the beta version of Windows 7 ; Overall, updates 2.1.2 were released on January 21, 2009 and 2.1.4 on February 16, 2009.
Older version; no longer supported: 2.2 April 8, 2009 OpenGL is now also possible on Linux and Solaris guest systems, as well as shared folders on Solaris and OpenSolaris guests, USB support on OpenSolaris host systems (experimental); New is the host-only network mode, support for the Open Virtualization format and the increase in the memory limit to 16 Gibibytes for guests on 64-bit host systems; VT-x / AMD-V and USB (OHCI & EHCI, only with Qt-GUI) are now activated by default for new guests; with version 2.2.2, Mac OS X Snow Leopard was supported as the host system for the first time ; Overall, updates 2.2.2 were released on April 27, 2009 and 2.2.4 on May 29, 2009.
Older version; no longer supported: 3.0 June 30, 2009 Support for symmetrical multiprocessor systems (SMP) for guest operating systems with up to 32 virtual main processors or (main) ​processor cores , support for OpenGL 2.0 and support for Direct3D 8 and 9 for Windows guest systems, initially classified as experimental ; last version for Mac OS X Tiger / Intel as host system; Overall, updates 3.0.2 appeared on July 10, 2009, 3.0.4 on August 4, 2009, 3.0.6 on September 9, 2009, 3.0.8 on October 6, 2009, 3.0.10 on October 29, 2009, 3.0 .12 on November 17, 2009 and 3.0.14 on March 18, 2010.
Older version; no longer supported: 3.1 November 30, 2009 The teleportation allows current to be transmitted to another host system running virtual machine (VM). VMs can return to any snapshot instead of just the last snapshot, expansion with 2D graphics acceleration for Windows guest systems, changes to the network settings can now be made while the VM is running; Images are now also supported in HDD format (for Parallels Hard Disk ); Overall, updates 3.1.2 appeared on December 17, 2009, 3.1.4 on February 12, 2010, 3.1.6 on March 25, 2010 and 3.1.8 on May 10, 2010.
Older version; no longer supported: 3.2 May 18, 2010 Renaming to "Oracle VM VirtualBox" due to the takeover of Sun by Oracle , Mac OS X as a guest on Apple hardware, improved memory management, replacement of main processors during operation ( hot plugging ), support for multiple screens, savepoints can be deleted during operation emulation of an LSI-Logic - SAS control unit, RDP video acceleration and configurable NAT ; Overall, the updates 3.2.2 appeared on June 2, 2010, 3.2.4 on June 7, 2010, 3.2.6 on June 25, 2010, 3.2.8 on August 6, 2010, 3.2.10 on October 8, 2010, 3.2 .12 on November 30, 2010, 3.2.14 on December 22, 2011, 3.2.16 on December 17, 2012, 3.2.18 on October 11, 2013, 3.2.20 on January 11, 2014, 3.2.22 on 14. March 2014, 3.2.24 on July 15, 2014, 3.2.26 on January 17, 2015 and finally 3.2.28 on May 19, 2015.
Older version; no longer supported: 4.0 December 22, 2010 Revised user interface, files can be copied directly into the file system of the guest system, VDI and VHD images can now be enlarged and reduced; the core components of version 4.0 are under the GPLv2 , the additional packages (English extension packs ) under the PUEL ; Overall, the updates 4.0.2 appeared on January 18, 2011, 4.0.4 on February 17, 2011, 4.0.6 on April 21, 2011, 4.0.8 on May 16, 2011, 4.0.10 on June 27, 2011, 4.0 .12 on July 15, 2011, 4.0.14 on October 18, 2011, 4.0.16 on January 11, 2012, 4.0.18 on December 18, 2012, 4.0.20 on October 11, 2013, 4.0.22 on January 11, 2012 January 2013, 4.0.24 on March 14, 2014, 4.0.26 on July 15, 2014, 4.0.28 on January 17, 2015, 4.0.30 on May 19, 2015, 4.0.32 on July 10, 2015, 4.0. 34 on October 20, 2015 and finally 4.0.36 on November 11, 2015.
Older version; no longer supported: 4.1 July 19, 2011 Virtual machines can now be cloned; with 64-bit host systems, a VM can now be assigned up to one Tebibyte of main memory, and the graphical user interface has been expanded with wizards (including functions that were previously only supported via the command line, such as creating VDI- , VMDK and VHD images) added and support for virtual networks by UDP - tunnel extended (for host-cross networks); first (experimental) support for the current service on and Unhingeable mass storage ( hot plugging ) at the virtual SATA - bus ; Overall, the updates 4.1.2 appeared on August 15, 2011, 4.1.4 on October 3, 2011, 4.1.6 on November 4, 2011, 4.1.8 on December 19, 2011, 4.1.10 on March 13, 2012, 4.1 .12 on April 3, 2012, 4.1.14 on April 26, 2012, 4.1.16 on May 22, 2012, 4.1.18 on June 20, 2012, 4.1.20 on August 20, 2012, 4.1.22 on May 7 , 2012 September 2012, 4.1.24 on December 19, 2012, 4.1.26 on April 12, 2013, 4.1.28 on October 11, 2013, 4.1.30 on January 11, 2014, 4.1.32 on March 13, 2014, 4.1. 34 on July 15, 2014, 4.1.36 on January 17, 2015, 4.1.38 on May 19, 2015, 4.1.40 on July 10, 2015, 4.1.42 on October 20, 2015 and finally 4.1.44 on 11. November 2015.
Older version; no longer supported: 4.2 September 13, 2012 Contents can now be exchanged between Linux guests and the basic system by drag and drop , the bandwidth of the network data traffic can be limited, memory images are now also in QED (for QEMU enhanced disk ), QCOW (for QEMU copy-on-write ) and supported in VHDX format , support for Windows 8 , grouping of machines to increase clarity; Mac OS X as the host system now requires at least 10.6 “Snow Leopard”; Overall, the updates 4.2.2 appeared on October 18, 2012, 4.2.4 on October 26, 2012, 4.2.6 on December 19, 2012, 4.2.8 on February 27, 2013, 4.2.10 on March 15, 2013, 4.2 .12 on April 12, 2013, 4.2.14 on June 21, 2013, 4.2.16 on July 4, 2013, 4.2.18 on September 6, 2013, 4.2.20 on November 28, 2013, 4.2.22 on 11. January 2014, 4.2.24 on March 13, 2014, 4.2.26 on July 15, 2014, 4.2.28 on January 17, 2015, 4.2.30 on May 19, 2015, 4.2.32 on July 10, 2015, 4.2. 34 on October 20, 2015 and finally 4.2.36 on November 11, 2015.
Older version; no longer supported: 4.3 15 October 2013 The virtualization code was revised, which increased the speed, multi-touch capabilities and initial support for Windows 10 were added, IPv6 support was expanded and is now available in almost all components, 3D acceleration was expanded so that the effects in Ubuntu and Fedora are now more usable, a virtual webcam is now available; Overall, the updates 4.3.2 appeared on November 1, 2013, 4.3.4 on November 29, 2013, 4.3.6 on December 18, 2013, 4.3.8 on February 25, 2014, 4.3.10 on March 25, 2014, 4.3 .12 on May 16, 2014, March 4th , 2014 on July 15th, 2014, March 4th , 2016 on September 9th, 2014, March 4th , 2018 on October 10th, 2014, March 4th , 2020 on November 21st, 2014, March 4th , 22nd on September 12th , 2014 . February 2015, 4.3.24 on March 2, 2015, 4.3.26 on March 16, 2015, 4.3.28 on May 13, 2015, 4.3.30 on July 10, 2015, 4.3.32 on October 20, 2015, 4.3. 34 on November 11, 2015, 4/3/36 on January 19, 2016, 4/3/38 on April 19, 2016 and finally 4/3/40 on August 22, 2016.
Older version; no longer supported: 5.0 July 9, 2015 The USB controller supports USB 3. Hard disk images can be encrypted. The VM and GUI can be operated independently of one another, so that the GUI can be closed independently of the VM. The administration via GUI has been expanded. Drag-and-drop between host and guest is supported. Support for the host systems Windows XP , Windows Server 2003 and Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6) and Lion (10.7) has been largely dropped; Overall, the updates 5.0.2 appeared on August 13, 2015, 5.0.4 on September 8, 2015, 5.0.6 on October 2, 2015, 5.0.8 on October 20, 2015, 5.0.10 on November 10, 2015, 5.0 .12 on December 18, 2015, 5.0.14 on January 19, 2016, 5.0.16 on March 4, 2016, 5.0.18 on April 18, 2016, 5.0.20 on April 28, 2016, 5.0.22 on April 16 , 2016 June 2016, 5.0.24 on June 28, 2016, 5.0.26 on July 18, 2016, 5.0.28 on October 18, 2016, 5.0.30 on November 23, 2016, 5.0.32 on January 17, 2017, 5.0. 34 on March 8, 2017, 5.0.36 on March 15, 2017, 5.0.38 on April 18, 2017 and finally 5.0.40 on April 28, 2017.
Older version; no longer supported: 5.1 July 12, 2016 The surface has been fully ported to Qt 5 ; Overall, the updates 5.1.2 appeared on July 21, 2016, 5.1.4 on August 16, 2016, 5.1.6 on September 12, 2016, 5.1.8 on October 18, 2016, 5.1.10 on November 21, 2016, 5.1 .12 on December 20, 2016, 5.1.14 on January 17, 2017, 5.1.16 on March 8, 2017, 5.1.18 on March 15, 2017, 5.1.20 on April 18, 2017, 5.1.22 on March 28 , 2017 April 2017, 5.1.24 on July 18, 2017, 5.1.26 on July 27, 2017, 5.1.28 on September 14, 2017, 5.1.30 on October 16, 2017, 5.1.32 on January 15, 2018, 5.1. 34 on February 27, 2018, 5.1.36 on April 17, 2018 and finally 5.1.38 on May 9, 2018.
Older version; still supported: 5.2 18th October 2017 VM export to the Oracle Cloud . Unattended installation of guest systems. New icons and general improvements to the interface. So far, the updates 5.2.2 appeared on November 24, 2017, 5.2.4 on December 19, 2017, 5.2.6 on January 15, 2018, 5.2.8 on February 27, 2018, 5.2.10 on April 17, 2018, 5.2 .12 on May 9, 2018, 5.2.14 on July 2, 2018, 5.2.16 on July 17, 2018, 5.2.18 on August 14, 2018, 5.2.20 on October 16, 2018, 5.2.22 on August 9 , 2018 November 2018, 5.2.24 on January 15, 2019, 5.2.26 on January 28, 2019, 5.2.28 on April 17, 2019, 5.2.30 on May 13, 2019, 5.2.32 on July 16, 2019, 5.2. 34 on October 15, 2019, 5.2.36 on January 14, 2020, 5.2.38 on February 21, 2020, 5.2.40 on April 14, 2020 and the current version 5.2.42 on May 14, 2020.
Older version; still supported: 6.0 December 18, 2018 Revision of the interface and improved graphics performance. So far, updates 6.0.2 were released on January 15, 2019, 6.0.4 on January 28, 2019, 6.0.6 on April 16, 2019, 6.0.8 on May 14, 2019, 6.0.10 on July 16, 2019, 6.0 .12 on September 3, 2019, 6.0.14 on October 15, 2019, 6.0.16 on January 14, 2020, 6.0.18 on February 21, 2020, 6.0.20 on April 14, 2020, 6.0.22 on January 15 , 2020 May 2020 and the current version 6.0.24 on July 14, 2020.
Current version: 6.1 December 10, 2019 Support for the import and extended support for the export of virtual machines from the Oracle Cloud infrastructure. The 3D graphics support VBoxVGA has been replaced (without replacement) by VBoxSVGA and VMSVGA. Up to now, update 6.1.2 appeared on January 14, 2020, 6.1.4 on February 19, 2020, 6.1.6 on April 14, 2020, 6.1.8 on May 15, 2020, 6.1.10 on June 5, 2020 and the current version 6.1.12 on July 14, 2020
Legend:
Older version; no longer supported
Older version; still supported
Current version
Current preliminary version
Future version

See also

Products that are in direct competition with VirtualBox:

Other virtualization products:

literature

  • Dirk Becker: VirtualBox: Installation, application, practice . 2nd updated edition. Galileo Press, Bonn 2011, ISBN 978-3-8362-1778-1 .

Web links

Commons : VirtualBox  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Commons : Oracle VirtualBox  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ www.virtualbox.org . July 14, 2020.
  2. ↑ Supported host operating systems . (English, accessed July 26, 2018).
  3. ↑ www.osnews.com . (accessed March 29, 2019).
  4. ↑ The virtualbox Open Source Project on Open Hub: Languages Page . In: Open Hub . (accessed on July 14, 2018).
  5. ↑ a b c Language Breakdown . In: Open Hub . (English, accessed July 26, 2018).
  6. ↑ The GNU General Public License (GPL) Version 2 . (English, accessed July 26, 2018).
  7. ↑ www.virtualbox.org (English); accessed on January 22, 2017.
  8. ↑ FreeBSD as a Host with VirtualBox - FreeBSD Documentation (accessed June 7, 2016)
  9. ↑ Genode 14.02 version information (accessed January 14, 2019)
  10. ↑ innotek GmbH. Oracle , accessed October 20, 2010 .
  11. ↑ Jens Ihlenfeld: Virtual PC for OS / 2. InnoTek brings Windows for OS / 2 and vice versa. golem.de , February 8, 2002, accessed April 26, 2013 .
  12. ↑ Oliver Diedrich: VirtualBox: PC virtualization under GPL. In: heise Open Source. January 15, 2007, accessed October 20, 2010 .
  13. ↑ a b News. January 15, 2007. In: virtualbox.org. Oracle, January 15, 2007, accessed October 20, 2010 .
  14. ↑ Oliver Diedrich: Sun takes over VirtualBox manufacturer Innotek. In: heise Open Source. February 12, 2008, accessed October 20, 2010 .
  15. ↑ Stephen Shankland, Florian Kalenda: Oracle completes acquisition of Sun. In: ZDNet.de. January 27, 2010, accessed October 20, 2010 .
  16. ↑ a b c VirtualBox Personal Use and Evaluation License (PUEL). (No longer available online.) Oracle , April 19, 2010, archived from the original ; accessed on October 20, 2010 (English, License version 8).
  17. ↑ VirtualBox Personal Use and Evaluation License (PUEL). (No longer available online.) Oracle, archived from the original on May 8, 2017 ; accessed on June 20, 2018 (English): "License version 9, November 17, 2016"
  18. ↑ DrWhoZee: PUEL no longer allowing commercial use with VB extension pack 5.1.30. In: End user forums for VirtualBox. virtualbox.org, October 19, 2017, accessed June 20, 2018 .
  19. ↑ Changelog for VirtualBox 1.6 ( Memento from June 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (English) - Changes to Virtualbox.org (accessed June 7, 2016)
  20. ↑ Controlling VirtualBox via the browser - Linux and me , on July 31, 2010
  21. ↑ phpVirtualBox (English) - page on SourceForge , (accessed on July 26, 2016)
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  24. ↑ Portable-VirtualBox (English) - public project page; As of May 13, 2013
  25. ↑ Portable-VirtualBox (English) - developer site at GitHub ; As of May 13, 2013
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  27. ↑ Virtualbox: How the seamless mode works - Chip , on September 6, 2016
  28. ↑ a b VirtualBox Personal Use and Evaluation License (PUEL). Oracle , July 20, 2017, accessed June 20, 2018 (English, License version 10).
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  30. ↑ Netzwelt.de: Mac OS X 10.6 or 10.7 under Oracle VirtualBox .
  31. ↑ Virtualiser VirtualBox updated - Heise , on June 6, 2007
  32. ↑ VirtualBox 2.0 with support for 64-bit guests - Heise , September 4, 2008
  33. ↑ VirtualBox 3.0 available as beta - Heise , June 17th, 2009
  34. ↑ Changelog for VirtualBox 3.1 ( Memento from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (English) - Changes to Virtualbox.org (accessed June 30, 2012)
  35. ↑ Changelog for VirtualBox 3.2 ( Memento from July 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (English) - Changes to Virtualbox.org (accessed on June 9, 2015)
  36. ↑ a b Changelog for VirtualBox 4.0 (English) - Changes to Virtualbox.org (accessed October 31, 2017)
  37. ↑ First beta of VirtualBox 4.1 - Heise open , on July 1st, 2011
  38. ↑ Virtualization: Virtualbox 4.1 Beta with a new hard drive wizard - Golem , on July 1st, 2011
  39. ↑ Oracle releases VirtualBox 4.1 - Heise , on July 19, 2011
  40. ↑ Virtualization: Virtualbox 4.1 changes the hard disk wizard - Golem , on July 20, 2011
  41. ↑ a b Changelog for VirtualBox 4.1 (English) - Changes at Virtualbox.org (accessed October 31, 2017)
  42. ↑ Virtualization: Virtualbox 4.2 released - Golem , September 13, 2012 (accessed September 15, 2012)
  43. ↑ Changelog for VirtualBox 4.2 (English) - Changes at Virtualbox.org (accessed October 31, 2017)
  44. ↑ VirtualBox 4.3 released - Pro-Linux , October 16, 2013 (accessed October 17, 2013)
  45. ↑ Changelog for VirtualBox 4.3 (English) - Changes to Virtualbox.org (accessed October 31, 2017)
  46. ↑ VirtualBox 5.0 Beta 3 released - VirtualBox Forum , May 7, 2015
  47. ↑ VirtualBox 5 for a try - report in iX , April 2nd, 2015
  48. ↑ VirtualBox 5.1 Beta 3 released - VirtualBox-Forum , on June 17, 2016, u. a. with " Main: WinXP guests defaults to E1000 (PRO / 1000 T Server), better performance "
  49. ↑ Changelog for VirtualBox 5.0 (English) - Changes to Virtualbox.org (accessed October 31, 2017)
  50. ↑ Moritz Förster: Virtualization software: VirtualBox 5.1 relies on Qt5. heise.de, July 13, 2016, accessed on July 13, 2016 .
  51. ↑ Changelog for VirtualBox 5.1 (English) - Changes to Virtualbox.org (accessed July 8, 2018)
  52. ↑ Oracle VM VirtualBox 5.2 is now available! October 18, 2017, accessed October 20, 2017 .
  53. ↑ Virtualbox 6.0 improves GUI, graphics performance and more. December 20, 2018, accessed January 28, 2019 .
  54. ↑ Changelog for VirtualBox 6.1 - at Virtualbox.org last changed on December 10, 2019