With more and more operating systems gracing computer screens these days, people are not entirely limited to the workspace of a Windows system. People now have the luxury of choosing their own operating systems (OS) from a plethora of them.
The most commonly used operating system, apart from commercial Windows or Macs, are the free for use Linux distributions. Since Linux is an open-source system, people are not restricted but encouraged to share, distribute and edit their operating systems to their liking. This means that Linux is free. Now even Google has come up with their own operating system titled the Chrome OS that works entirely on the cloud.
So many options! But how to go about installing and experimenting with them all? Many people would be forced to dual-boot with virtually partitioning their hard drives into two and installing a separate OS on each of them. But this usually causes many drive space and hardware issues. People want to experiment with all of these operating systems but installing a separate OS is not as simple as installing an application on Windows. Installing an OS can be quite tiresome and complicated, but today we talk about a system that lets you create a world within a world, like a portal to an alternate OS.
Computer Virtualization is a simple process to do yet complex to understand. A virtual machine is a piece of software that emulates another computer so that there is a computer running within your computer. This piece of software reacts to you like a fresh piece of computer that is ready to accept any kind of OS you wish to apply on to it.
If you want to experience Ubuntu, a distribution of the Linux system, then there is no need for you to go about formatting your hard drive and making a separate partition on to your drive. All this can be done within a screen of the OS that you are currently running.
You will need a copy of the installation DVD or CD of your OS of choice, and you will need a software that enables you to create this virtual system.
There are many software out there that help you create a virtual system. Two of the most common would be VirtualBox and VMWare.
VirtualBox is free and basic whereas VMWare is paid and feature-rich. But for a normal home virtualization, VirtualBox would easily suffice. Your virtual machine will be running within your host OS and will be able to access any files that your host OS can access.
After you have both, the operating system DVD or ISO and the virtual computing software ready, you will need to follow a few simple steps.
Both VirtualBox and VMWare will present you with a window that has a ‘New’ button on the toolbar. Clicking this button will take you to a wizard that will help you create a new virtual machine. It will ask you how much of your total CPU and RAM power you want to make available for your virtual computer and will ask you to create a file to act as a hard drive for the virtual machine. Here, it will ask you for the size of the file, and if you want to create it as a fixed drive or dynamic.
The fixed option will take up the set amount immediately and reserve it for your guest OS whereas the dynamic option will create a file that will increase in size as you go on filling it up. It will never exceed the amount you have specified, though. After that, all you need to do is select the drive with the installation DVD in it and the software will boot it up. After this, all you need to do is to follow the setup wizard of your operating system, and your guest OS should be ready for you.
Installing a Mac on your Windows or Linux PC is also possible in this manner. But doing so would be illegal and complex. If you have, however, purchased a Mac disk from Apple, installing it on VirtualBox or VMWare would be possible, and a quick search on Google on how to perform it would yield great results.
After you have your guest OS running smoothly within your virtual system window, make sure to install Guest Addons that both of these software provide. This option will install drivers, much like the drivers people install after a fresh install of Windows, on to your guest OS so that it will properly recognize the hardware that the software mimics.
After that is done, give your guest OS access to all of your drives by finding your way to the Shared Folders tab within the properties of the Guest OS. Here you have the ability to add the drives you want to make available for use on the Guest OS. After this, you should be good to go.
Virtualization not only opens doors for users to experiment with different OSs but also provides application developers to develop applications for different operating systems. The Guest OS will be limited in functionality because of it accessing your computer hardware on the secondhand basis but it should work well. Get your virtual system up and running and experience multiple operating systems within the one that you’re working with.
