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You can, but running Linux with a graphical desktop on VirtualBox under MacOS has become extremely sluggish in my experience. I don't know whether newer release

You can, but running Linux with a graphical desktop on VirtualBox under MacOS has become extremely sluggish in my experience. I don't know whether newer releases of MacOS or VirtualBox itself are to blame. It was much snappier 8 years ago even though I had a significantly slower laptop then.

coldtea 4y ago
>You can, but running Linux with a graphical desktop on VirtualBox under MacOS has become extremely sluggish in my experience. Huh? It's actually faster than ever, and near native experience. And the post is not about "how to run" a virtual machine as an end user or dev (for that the way the parent describes is still the suggested way). It's about how to program running it under the hood if you're a developer who wants to develop something like a program that manages virtual machines or that hosts and runs one.
- philipkglass 4y ago
  I'm only referring to the VirtualBox experience asked about by qwerty456127. Running e.g. Debian with Gnome under MacOS became extremely sluggish for me. The screen re-renders slowly, like running a remote desktop over a slow network link. I did a lot of searching and setting-tweaking when I encountered the problem earlier this year. I never found a satisfactory resolution. I tried this fix: https://mkyong.com/mac/virtualbox-running-slow-and-lag-on-macos-macbook-pro/ https://mkyong.com/mac/virtualbox-running-slow-and-lag-on-ma... as well as others suggested on the VirtualBox forums, but couldn't get it running smoothly. I didn't have any trouble with a similar setup several years ago.
  - coldtea 4y ago
    Ah, sorry, glossed over the Virtualbox part - thought it was about generally about running a VM on a Mac. I used to use Virtuabox on x86 Mac until 3-4 years ago, don't know if it was changed - but then again, I used it for headless Linux only.
- qwerty456127 4y ago
  > It's about how to program running it under the hood if you're a developer who wants to develop something like a program that manages virtual machines Has somebody already done that perhaps? Is there a reasonable alternative to VirtualBox/WMWare using the optimal way to run a VM on a Mac? I don't mind paying if it's worth it. I have zero experience of Mac development but I am going to need to run Windows 7 (to use IE6 with old crypto to access an outdated state-ran system) on an M2 MacBook next week. What's the best way to achieve that?
  - kergonath 4y ago
    > Has somebody already done that perhaps? Yes. And there have been several examples of small or independent developers cobbling together VM applications based on Apple’s frameworks in the last year or so. I do my know how many will actually survive but there is quite a bit of developer interest. > Is there a reasonable alternative to VirtualBox/WMWare using the optimal way to run a VM on a Mac? I don't mind paying if it's worth it. I don’t know about VMWare, but Parallels does this (for money, I am not a fan of their subscription model). AFAIK the best free equivalent is UTM, which can use either Apple’s frameworks or QEMU: https://mac.getutm.app/ https://mac.getutm.app/ . > I have zero experience of Mac development but I am going to need to run Windows 7 (to use IE6 with old crypto to access an outdated state-ran system) on an M2 MacBook next week. What's the best way to achieve that? I would try UTM, personally.

coldtea 4y ago

>You can, but running Linux with a graphical desktop on VirtualBox under MacOS has become extremely sluggish in my experience. Huh? It's actually faster than ever, and near native experience. And the post is not about "how to run" a virtual machine as an end user or dev (for that the way the parent describes is still the suggested way). It's about how to program running it under the hood if you're a developer who wants to develop something like a program that manages virtual machines or that hosts and runs one.

philipkglass 4y ago
I'm only referring to the VirtualBox experience asked about by qwerty456127. Running e.g. Debian with Gnome under MacOS became extremely sluggish for me. The screen re-renders slowly, like running a remote desktop over a slow network link. I did a lot of searching and setting-tweaking when I encountered the problem earlier this year. I never found a satisfactory resolution. I tried this fix: https://mkyong.com/mac/virtualbox-running-slow-and-lag-on-macos-macbook-pro/ https://mkyong.com/mac/virtualbox-running-slow-and-lag-on-ma... as well as others suggested on the VirtualBox forums, but couldn't get it running smoothly. I didn't have any trouble with a similar setup several years ago.
- coldtea 4y ago
  Ah, sorry, glossed over the Virtualbox part - thought it was about generally about running a VM on a Mac. I used to use Virtuabox on x86 Mac until 3-4 years ago, don't know if it was changed - but then again, I used it for headless Linux only.
qwerty456127 4y ago
> It's about how to program running it under the hood if you're a developer who wants to develop something like a program that manages virtual machines Has somebody already done that perhaps? Is there a reasonable alternative to VirtualBox/WMWare using the optimal way to run a VM on a Mac? I don't mind paying if it's worth it. I have zero experience of Mac development but I am going to need to run Windows 7 (to use IE6 with old crypto to access an outdated state-ran system) on an M2 MacBook next week. What's the best way to achieve that?
- kergonath 4y ago
  > Has somebody already done that perhaps? Yes. And there have been several examples of small or independent developers cobbling together VM applications based on Apple’s frameworks in the last year or so. I do my know how many will actually survive but there is quite a bit of developer interest. > Is there a reasonable alternative to VirtualBox/WMWare using the optimal way to run a VM on a Mac? I don't mind paying if it's worth it. I don’t know about VMWare, but Parallels does this (for money, I am not a fan of their subscription model). AFAIK the best free equivalent is UTM, which can use either Apple’s frameworks or QEMU: https://mac.getutm.app/ https://mac.getutm.app/ . > I have zero experience of Mac development but I am going to need to run Windows 7 (to use IE6 with old crypto to access an outdated state-ran system) on an M2 MacBook next week. What's the best way to achieve that? I would try UTM, personally.