I have been examining various virtual machine applications for projects I wanted to work on.  I was aware of Parallels and VMWare but they are commercial solutions.  Ideally since these were hobbyist projects I was looking for a free solution, preferably open-source.  VirtualBox was suggested to me and I instantly fell in love.

I’m so pleased with VirtualBox.  I needed something that would allow me to take screen shots during an operating system installed.  Any VM would’ve done.  But the price was right with VirtualBox.  I’m also amazed at how polished and functional the application is for a free product.  There was a minimal learning curve to get it up and running with a basic OS install.  It ran without any problems when using it on a Windows XP machine.  Under Ubuntu it took a bit of extra tweaking to get USB running.  Persistence prevailed though and ultimately I was not only able to get USB working, but I got a virtualized iTunes to sync with my iPod.

The latter was huge bonus.  The only reason I keep windows running on a machine is for my iPod.  Sure there are open-source applications that will copy my mp3 onto my iPod, but they aren’t enough.  I use almost every feature of the iPod.  And nothing handle video, podcasts, and smart playlists quite like iTunes did.  Finally with this solution and can fully immerse myself into a Linux environment.

Installing VirtualBox isn’t all that complicated.  Its a pretty straight forward install, even on the Linux side.  On Ubutnu download the bundle for your version from here.

Click on the file in your Firefox download manager or browse your way to the file and click it there. Take your pick.  Either way it should open up in your package installer with the option to install the package.  Click Install Package, enter your password, and it will proceed to do its thing.

You’ll only get one additional prompt during the package installation.  Basically it’s just a reminder to add your user to the VirtualBox group.  We’ll get to that later.

Once the package installation is finished, you’ll have to reboot.  For some reason it doesn’t show up under the Applications menu unless you do.  Afterwards you’ll find it under the System Tools menu.

The first time you start the software you’ll be greeted by a pretty lenient EULA, followed by a registration form that’s not required.

Now you are ready to start making new VM’s.

To be continued on in Part 2: Building your first virtual machine.

Update:  I found a more practical way of installation.  It’s not as obvious as downloading the package and installing it manually, but it has the benefit of updating VirtualBox to newer versions along with all other Ubuntu updates.
Goto the System menu -> Administration -> Software Sources

In the window select the second tab for “Third-Party Software.”

Click the “Add” button and in the field enter:

deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian intrepid non-free

Click “Add Source” then “Close”.  Click on OK.  You’ll get an error.  Don’t worry about it.  Click OK.

Load up a command promt and enter the following:

wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/sun_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

This keeps that error from returning, not to mention its required for this to work.  It loads an encryption key to make sure we are getting the software we asked for.
Next at the command prompt enter:

apt-get install virtualbox-2.1

Reboot, and the software will be in Applications -> System Tools