VMWARE, Virtual PC, or QEMU?

[aktivedesign]

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...

[Martin Zugec]

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

[andrewpayne]

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

[Zxian]

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.

[Incroyable HULK]

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

[hasanemara]

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, 2005 by hasanemara

[john0452]

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

[ryang]

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.

[MHz]

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.

[d0p3y2k4]

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

[aktivedesign]

Thanks for all your replies guys!

[yoz7120]

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.

[Clint]

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, 2005 by Clint

[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.

Edited July 6, 2005 by mjc

[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.

<{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.