Desktop Virtualization on Linux Sucks

Posted on January 27th, 2008 by Yousef Ourabi

Desktop Virtualization on Linux sucks, especially compared to the options available to Mac OS X users who have both Parallels and VMWare fusion.

VMWare Desktop is slow, even on my q6600 quad core with 4gigs of ram. The integration blows, it’s only good for syncing my ipod at best. iTunes will play sound just fine, but if I try to watch a movie I’ve bought or a video cast the sound stops working after about 10 seconds, though the video continues to play.  It doesn’t look or feel as fast as the Mac OS X equivalents on the same or even better hardware.

Vmware server is a joke for desktop stuff, don’t even get me started. VMWare server 2.0, currently in beta is supposed to be bring improved performance and para-virtualization to but it only has a web-interface, not a desktop interface like vmware server 1.0 and vmware workstation.

I believe a large part of the recent apple revolution has to do with the ease of use of running windows applications at near native speeds. Why doesn’t this exist for GNU/Linux desktops — I would pay for this.   I still have to dual-boot for the occasional intensive app (Blackberry IDE for BB development).

The virtualization options alone are enough to have me seriously thinking about making the “switch” –

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Filed under: Linux, Virtualization


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2 Responses to “Desktop Virtualization on Linux Sucks”

  1. Ubuntu to package parallels virtualization | Yousef Ourabi, on February 7th, 2008 at 7:08 am Said:

    [...] this comes not long after my gripes about desktop virtualization on linux. This won’t fix it either. The problem is not that parallels is hard to install — [...]

  2. Brian Mauter, on March 11th, 2008 at 9:33 pm Said:

    Have you tried VirtualBox? I’ve had good luck with it. I also use a Mac. I prefer VirtualBox on the Mac instead of the mighty Parallels.

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