RUN MULTIPLE OS
http://www.filehippo.com/download_virtualbox/==============================
VirtualBox is a general-purpose full
virtualizer for x86 hardware,
targeted at server, desktop and
embedded use.
VirtualBox is a cross-platform
virtualization application. What does
that mean? For one thing, it installs
on your existing Intel or AMD-based
computers, whether they are
running Windows, Mac, Linux or
Solaris operating systems. Secondly,
it extends the capabilities of your
existing computer so that it can run
multiple operating systems (inside
multiple virtual machines) at the
same time. So, for example, you can
run Windows and Linux on your
Mac, run Windows Server 2008 on
your Linux server, run Linux on
your Windows PC, and so on, all
alongside your existing applications.
You can install and run as many
virtual machines as you like -- the
only practical limits are disk space
and memory.
VirtualBox is deceptively simple yet
also very powerful. It can run
everywhere from small embedded
systems or desktop class machines
all the way up to datacenter
deployments and even Cloud
environments.
Why is virtualization useful?
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The techniques and features that
VirtualBox provides are useful for
several scenarios:
Running multiple operating systems
simultaneously. VirtualBox allows
you to run more than one operating
system at a time. This way, you can
run software written for one
operating system on another (for
example, Windows software on
Linux or a Mac) without having to
reboot to use it. Since you can
configure what kinds of "virtual"
hardware should be presented to
each such operating system, you
can install an old operating system
such as DOS or OS/2 even if your
real computer's hardware is no
longer supported by that operating
system.
Easier software installations.
Software vendors can use virtual
machines to ship entire software
configurations. For example,
installing a complete mail server
solution on a real machine can be a
tedious task. With VirtualBox, such
a complex setup (then often called
an "appliance") can be packed into a
virtual machine. Installing and
running a mail server becomes as
easy as importing such an appliance
into VirtualBox.
Testing and disaster recovery. Once
installed, a virtual machine and its
virtual hard disks can be considered
a "container" that can be arbitrarily
frozen, woken up, copied, backed
up, and transported between hosts.
On top of that, with the use of
another VirtualBox feature called
"snapshots", one can save a
particular state of a virtual machine
and revert back to that state, if
necessary. This way, one can freely
experiment with a computing
environment. If something goes
wrong (e.g. after installing
misbehaving software or infecting
the guest with a virus), one can
easily switch back to a previous
snapshot and avoid the need of
frequent backups and restores.
Any number of snapshots can be
created, allowing you to travel back
and forward in virtual machine
time. You can delete snapshots while
a VM is running to reclaim disk
space.
Infrastructure consolidation.
Virtualization can significantly
reduce hardware and electricity
costs. Most of the time, computers
today only use a fraction of their
potential power and run with low
average system loads. A lot of
hardware resources as well as
electricity is thereby wasted. So,
instead of running many such
physical computers that are only
partially used, one can pack many
virtual machines onto a few
powerful hosts and balance the
loads between them.
