Dual/Multi boot or Virtualbox?

When deciding to use more than one OS on one computer it can be of value to know that there is more than one option. This article is based on personal preferences of typist of this weblog.

Personally I do not feel particularly comfortable messing around with partitions but I have despite this managed multi boots in the past and this through gParted (a Partition Editor application). I found that handling the partitions on my computer was both discouraging and confusing and not all too simple either. The program I am about to present handles multi operating systems with a sense of alleviation since it does not include managing of partitions. Instead it runs on the desktop (Windows and Linux), it is installed inside the Windows or Linux installation and runs like any other program on your computer.

VirtualBox is one option to dual/multi boot: VirtualBox is a commercial and proprietary X86 virtualization software package produced by German software company innotek GmbH. VirtualBox supports Linux, Mac OS X, OS/2 Warp (experimental OSE builds), Windows, and OpenSolaris hosts. Supported guest operating systems include FreeBSD, Linux, OpenBSD, OS/2 Warp, Windows and Solaris. In January 2007, after several years of development, VirtualBox OSE (Open source edition), a limited, open-source version, was released under the GNU General Public License (GPL). — Continue to read about VirtualBox on Wikipedia: Link or on the VirtualBox Home Page where VirtualBox also can be downloaded from: Link

The pros I find in this arrangement:

1. (The great) Option to use dynamically expanding disc space for the virtual OS.
2. No handling of partitions.
3. (Using WindowsXP) I am still logged on my favorite OS (Kubuntu Gutsy + KDE4) while having the unlimited benifits from WindowsXP contary to Wine & Wine-Doors which are much limited.

Thumbnails:

Tip:
To change the size of your virtualbox; change the screen resolution within the virtual OS.