How many of you use Virtual Machines?

Just curious if there are a lot of you out there that benefit in the duality of a host machine and a guest machine. I find it very helpful and beneficial. I run a windows host with a linux guest, specifically Ubuntu 22.04 for the time being.

If so what virtual manager interface do you use? I use VirtualBox as its free and mostly reliable. There was a bug I had experienced recently where no matter what settings were changed that the guest machine would face a memory error and force close when the host machine was left idle. Implementing many thought to be fixes did nothing in the end. Seemingly yesterday, VB released an update that has definitely changed something on my end and I haven't experienced the error anymore.

What do you use your guest machine for? I used mine simply for learning linux in general but also the added benefits of being able to do more with your system and not be so limited. Now I do 80% of my internet surfing from it without even paying attention to which machine I'm on.

What's your setup? I'm using a 350GB dynamically allocated (used to be fixed) storage, with 12GB of ram and two processors. I run a two network adapter system with the first being a host-only adapter and the second being bridged and assigned a static IP on the same range as my host network for benefits. Makes things really easy and communicates well.

What keeps you from trying if you have not used a virtual machine? I love tinkering around with and making new machines to experience different software OS and versions. Keeps me fresh and up to date.

Any way, thought I'd make a bit of conversation here about something I love to do. Love to hear from you all about what and why you use.

I personally hate VMs, because of how buggy it can be, but I know it's something I may have to revisit at some point, for the sake of privacy. I use live operating systems to get some experience of Linux distros + persistence mode.

Furthermore, I have a security question, if anyone would be so kind in answering; if one wants to prevent being tracked by those who run these trackers, what is the best option going forward - to continue with Live USBs, explore VMs, or both?

I've heard there are software out there which can alter OS characteristics. Is device ID recorded too? I had long forgotten the name of it. Advancing years.

Personally prefer Docker containers rather than full VM's. Debian base, most of the software I want to use 'contained' is available for Linux, and available as a Container. Delete, update as required.

I used the virtual machine in past when i use to make custom iso for windows for testing only

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Originally Posted by sivik24

Just curious if there are a lot of you out there that benefit in the duality of a host machine and a guest machine. I find it very helpful and beneficial. I run a windows host with a linux guest, specifically Ubuntu 22.04 for the time being.

If so what virtual manager interface do you use? I use VirtualBox as its free and mostly reliable. There was a bug I had experienced recently where no matter what settings were changed that the guest machine would face a memory error and force close when the host machine was left idle. Implementing many thought to be fixes did nothing in the end. Seemingly yesterday, VB released an update that has definitely changed something on my end and I haven't experienced the error anymore.

What do you use your guest machine for? I used mine simply for learning linux in general but also the added benefits of being able to do more with your system and not be so limited. Now I do 80% of my internet surfing from it without even paying attention to which machine I'm on.

What's your setup? I'm using a 350GB dynamically allocated (used to be fixed) storage, with 12GB of ram and two processors. I run a two network adapter system with the first being a host-only adapter and the second being bridged and assigned a static IP on the same range as my host network for benefits. Makes things really easy and communicates well.

What keeps you from trying if you have not used a virtual machine? I love tinkering around with and making new machines to experience different software OS and versions. Keeps me fresh and up to date.

Any way, thought I'd make a bit of conversation here about something I love to do. Love to hear from you all about what and why you use.

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Your setup sounds awesome! I also use VirtualBox for my Windows host and Linux guest. It's been a game-changer for learning new skills and expanding what I can do with my system. Totally agree about the benefits of running a guest machine. Keep on tinkering and exploring!

Hello there :-)
i'm using VMWare Workstation because it's more reliable than virtualbox in many cases and it's easier to make things work with in my opinion.

Actually I only have one VM which is a TrueNAS so i can share my hdd content all around in the house pretty easily. Currently struggling with the cifs shares tho ^^'
So for this i'm just using a basic 15go virtual hard drive because my real hard drives are shared through network. I gave it 4go RAM and 2 cores which is more than enough to run this kind of stuff.

Otherwise i'm running a real dual boot with a Linux because for some components like wifi devices, it's much more convinient. I'm specificaly talking about this because i need the monitor mode on it ;-)

What are you doing with your virtual ubuntu ?

VirtualBox has been a game-changer for me, running Ubuntu 22.04 as a guest on my Windows host, enhancing my workflow with seamless Linux integration and expanded system capabilities..

I use VMware Workstation for my setup. It’s not free like VirtualBox, but I’ve found it very stable and with excellent performance for my needs. That said, I started with VirtualBox, and it's definitely great for many use cases.

For my guest setup, I allocate around 100GB of storage, 8GB of RAM, and 2 processors. My network is bridged so the guest can interact with the same subnet as my host, making file sharing and remote access a breeze. I’ve also been playing around with GPU passthrough recently - challenging but rewarding!