I’d like some recommendations as a beginner in the virtualization space for good GUI software for running vms for both experimentation and server use.
I’ve used virtualbox on Windows before but are there any better alternatives on Linux? I hear a lot of praise of QEMU but this seems to be only terminal based like what you do with containers.
VMware workstation is free but again, I’d like to know your thoughts on other good beginner options.
Thank you advance and have a good day/afternoon/night
VMware Player is the best by far in terms of GUI and ease of use. With that said:
Virt-manager is pretty decent and it will not break on a stable distro but:
Personally, I’d try using virt-manager because it will work “forever.” If you can’t get something to work and feel overwhelmed, go to VMware for now but long term you’ll likely have to get used to virt-manager.
I would avoid VMware with a ten foot pole. Also I personally think virtual manager is easier to use.
It objectively takes fewer mouse clicks and keyboard keystrokes to install a Windows VM with drivers and full integration (3D, shared folders, etc.) on VMware Player than virt-manager. I could count them for you but I have better things to do. Setting up an equivalent VM with virt-manager is significantly more work. Just a trivial example - getting the VirtIO drivers. On virt-manager you have to search the web, find multiple sources, figure out which to use, figure out which version to download, download it. On VMware, you click the top menu, then Install VM tools, the end. With that said I’m not complaining, because I don’t have the time to write the patches needed for virt-manager to work the same, but the difference is there.
There is only one source of the drivers and it is the Fedora Project.
https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/quick-docs/creating-windows-virtual-machines-using-virtio-drivers/
Are you sure? Cause KVM’s doc lists two: https://www.linux-kvm.org/page/WindowsGuestDrivers/Download_Drivers and the first one ain’t Fedora. The language used doesn’t suggest that one is a canonical source either. Now imagine that I’m a noob or otherwise using KVM for the first time. I have to figure out what the difference is and which one to get because I don’t want to make a mistake and end up with a broken install. Mind you I have ended up with bad graphics depending on which driver and what version I’ve installed.
Stop suggesting people use vmware