Forgive me if a poll like this already exists but i havent seen any and couldnt find one... so i thought i would start one.

Which is the best for testing unattended/multiboot DVDs?

I knew of VMWARE and Virtual PC already but I have only just found out about QEMU.

(see this topic)

Anyway which do you all find the best? Taking into consideration cost as well of course...

Dont have practical experiences with QEMU, however I am using VirtualPC. Compared to VMWARE, it is almost the same, however it is much cheaper...

I have used both VMware and VirtualPC - VMWare v5 wins hands down on performance without question and well worth the little extra in price.

I'd have to say VMWare. It costs a bit more, but it works a lot faster. Not to mention that you can have several Virtual Machines "networked" in VMWare.

VMware is really worth the price tag. Far superior to VirtualPC.

I tried both VMware and virtual PC 2004 I found VMware has the advance of faster and higher performance, although I could easy share my documents in the virtual system with that in the logic system in case of Virtual PC 2004

I myself can't make that posibilty with VMWare

Edited July 5, 200521 yr by hasanemara

VMware 5 beta although I wish there was support for x64. It's a real pain not being able to test UA images.

QEmu really isn't usable unless you are running linux and can use the accelleration offered by the kernel enhancements...

Personally I use VMWare, but I haven't tried VirtualPC.

I have used both VMWare and VirtualPC. Both have similar features. VMWare does seem to run better for performance. Have tried and failed with VMWare, to have multiple machines with a single OS image. VirtualPC can do this, so is my preference to use. The small performance difference, seems trival to a good feature.

im going with vmware took me only 10mins to install a virtual os now virtual pc took me 30 mins

Thanks for all your replies guys!

USe VMWare since I first started doing my unattended testing. The only thing I don't like but can live with is when VMWare takes a hissy fit trying to install ISOBuster.

Hmm, a ratio of 4-1 in Wmware's favor...

I have never tried Wmware...been at VPC since day1.

Can someone point out the biggest differences between those two?

EDIT: Just saw earlier posts..anyone have additional info

Edited July 6, 200521 yr by Clint

EDIT: Just saw earlier posts..anyone have additional info

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

• netbooting support (for testing RIS)
  
• fast formatting in 2k/xp setup (due to sparse file creation on ntfs)
  
• officially (and unofficially) supports a lot more operating systems than VPC (appears to emulate more hardware...)
  
• Has a lot of enhancements to speed up things that are traditionally slow on a real pc (such as fdisk.exe in dos if you decide to use it for whatever ungodly reason)
  
• some versions of it will emulate more than one CPU
  

Personally I use Virtutech Simics for all of my non-x86 simulation needs. the x86-64 simulator is really helpful for testing x86-64 nlite. Well worth the price, IMO.

Edited July 6, 200521 yr by mjc

EDIT: Just saw earlier posts..anyone have additional info

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

• netbooting support (for testing RIS)
  
• fast formatting in 2k/xp setup (due to sparse file creation on ntfs)
  
• officially (and unofficially) supports a lot more operating systems than VPC (appears to emulate more hardware...)
  
• Has a lot of enhancements to speed up things that are traditionally slow on a real pc (such as fdisk.exe in dos if you decide to use it for whatever ungodly reason)
  
• some versions of it will emulate more than one CPU
  

Personally I use Virtutech Simics for all of my non-x86 simulation needs. the x86-64 simulator is really helpful for testing x86-64 nlite. Well worth the price, IMO.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ok, thanx

But fast formatting works in VPC as well (a few sec), but I use only a 5gb systempartition so it may differ on bigger partitions.

And fdisk.exe in dos..hehe, well...not happening everyday

But that netbooting support sounds appealing, guess I have to try it out then.