6 ms·

I'm pretty sure that the market for VB, like VMWare is being eaten very quickly by lxc-based alternatives like Docker. Probably a bad thing for VB in the mediu

I'm pretty sure that the market for VB, like VMWare is being eaten very quickly by lxc-based alternatives like Docker. Probably a bad thing for VB in the medium to long term.

stephenr 10y ago
Only in the "tech fanboy who doesn't actually understand VMs vs Containers" space, which admittedly is quite a big space right now. For OS X/Windows hosts the only thing keeping VirtualBox around is the price tag. No one is going to pay for the commercial version with the terrible performance it has. If you're willing to part with $ you have much better options. On OS X I think new players like Veertu will further displace VirtualBox even in the $0 category.
- Nullabillity 10y ago
  Veertu doesn't seem like a contender in the $0 category either, considering that the website has statements like "with free tier to run Linux VMs". Since no actual price is mentioned I'd assume that it's in the "if you have to ask..." category.
  - jevinskie 10y ago
    Huh? Veertu Premium is a $40 IAP. https://itunes.apple.com/app/veertu/id1024069033 https://itunes.apple.com/app/veertu/id1024069033
    - Nullabillity 10y ago
      Good luck finding that on their website.
      - stephenr 10y ago
        They link to their Mac App Store page, which shows the IAP pricing for the upgrade.
- throwaway_xx9 10y ago
  Excuse me, but even free Virtualbox's performance is adequate for web development work. (I use a Macbook Pro and deploy into a local linux VM. I can snapshot a full VM in less than 10 seconds.) You may be referring to graphics performance, but not a lot of people use a VM for gaming. The huge advantage of free Virtualbox is that once you buy VMware Fusion, you're on an upgrade cycle for every new OS release. With free Virtualbox, you just download another one and you're golden.
- toyg 10y ago
  Veertu's main obstacle is cross-platform support. The point of providing virtualbox images is that they will work everywhere. Look at the number of opensource projects distributing Hyper-V images, which has the exact same problem; and the OSX market is orders of magnitude smaller. I like the Veertu concept and I think it has its advantages, but realistically, it has no chance to encroach on VB's market share.
  - stephenr 10y ago
    This is why basically every virtualisation tool has "import from..." functionality
Mister_Snuggles 10y ago
VirtualBox and VMWare do very different things than lxc/Docker. VirtualBox and VMWare, for example, allow you to run Windows on a Mac, or FreeBSD on Linux, or Linux on Windows. lxc/Docker does none of this, it's simply a different technology with a different purpose.
- criddell 10y ago
  Yes they are different technologies and have different strengths. Before Docker, a VM was just about the only way to decouple a software environment from specific hardware. Now some people are migrating from a VM to Docker if that's all they need. I have no idea how big the impact of Docker is on the various VM vendors, but it isn't zero.

I'm pretty sure that the market for VB, like VMWare is being eaten very quickly by lxc-based alternatives like Docker. Probably a bad thing for VB in the medium to long term.

stephenr 10y ago

Only in the "tech fanboy who doesn't actually understand VMs vs Containers" space, which admittedly is quite a big space right now. For OS X/Windows hosts the only thing keeping VirtualBox around is the price tag. No one is going to pay for the commercial version with the terrible performance it has. If you're willing to part with $ you have much better options. On OS X I think new players like Veertu will further displace VirtualBox even in the $0 category.

Nullabillity 10y ago
Veertu doesn't seem like a contender in the $0 category either, considering that the website has statements like "with free tier to run Linux VMs". Since no actual price is mentioned I'd assume that it's in the "if you have to ask..." category.
- jevinskie 10y ago
  Huh? Veertu Premium is a $40 IAP. https://itunes.apple.com/app/veertu/id1024069033 https://itunes.apple.com/app/veertu/id1024069033
  - Nullabillity 10y ago
    Good luck finding that on their website.
    - stephenr 10y ago
      They link to their Mac App Store page, which shows the IAP pricing for the upgrade.
throwaway_xx9 10y ago
Excuse me, but even free Virtualbox's performance is adequate for web development work. (I use a Macbook Pro and deploy into a local linux VM. I can snapshot a full VM in less than 10 seconds.) You may be referring to graphics performance, but not a lot of people use a VM for gaming. The huge advantage of free Virtualbox is that once you buy VMware Fusion, you're on an upgrade cycle for every new OS release. With free Virtualbox, you just download another one and you're golden.
toyg 10y ago
Veertu's main obstacle is cross-platform support. The point of providing virtualbox images is that they will work everywhere. Look at the number of opensource projects distributing Hyper-V images, which has the exact same problem; and the OSX market is orders of magnitude smaller. I like the Veertu concept and I think it has its advantages, but realistically, it has no chance to encroach on VB's market share.
- stephenr 10y ago
  This is why basically every virtualisation tool has "import from..." functionality

Mister_Snuggles 10y ago

VirtualBox and VMWare do very different things than lxc/Docker. VirtualBox and VMWare, for example, allow you to run Windows on a Mac, or FreeBSD on Linux, or Linux on Windows. lxc/Docker does none of this, it's simply a different technology with a different purpose.

criddell 10y ago
Yes they are different technologies and have different strengths. Before Docker, a VM was just about the only way to decouple a software environment from specific hardware. Now some people are migrating from a VM to Docker if that's all they need. I have no idea how big the impact of Docker is on the various VM vendors, but it isn't zero.