Oracle has taken the wraps off Oracle VM VirtualBox 5.0, the latest release of the free and open source, cross-platform virtualization software. Now generally available, Oracle VM VirtualBox runs on standard x86 desktop and laptop computers, and enables developers and users to create cloud and local applications without the overhead of using a full server environment.
Using VM VirtualBox, users can set up multi-platform virtual machine environments for software development, testing, and general purpose operating system (OS) virtualization, with optional runtime encryption. The platform enables software engineers to develop for cloud technologies such as Docker and OpenStack from within Oracle VM VirtualBox VMs directly on their Windows, Mac OS, Linux, and Oracle Solaris machines, making it easier to create multi-tier applications with just a standard laptop. Oracle VM VirtualBox also enables users to create and update virtual machines locally, including the OS and applications, and then package them into an industry standard file format for easy distribution and cloud deployment in conjunction with Oracle VM Server, or other server virtualization solutions. Oracle VM VirtualBox allows users to run nearly any standard x86 OS to run applications that are not available natively on their systems.
“Creating, testing and deploying today’s applications, be they cloud, on premises, or software for desktop computers, can present significant challenges for developers and organizations, as it requires them to run a complex mixture of environments, operating systems and interfaces,” said Wim Coekaerts, senior vice president of Linux and Virtualization Engineering, Oracle. “Oracle VM VirtualBox 5.0 addresses these challenges by enabling the use of a wide range of virtual machine environments easily on standard desktop and laptop computers, and simple deployment to a server virtualization solution, which makes developing and delivering applications an easier and faster experience.”
The 5.0 release supports the latest guest or host operating systems including: Mac OS X Yosemite, Windows 10, Oracle Linux, Oracle Solaris, other Linux operating systems, and legacy operating systems. New capabilities in Oracle VM VirtualBox 5.0:
The new release improves guest OS performance by leveraging built-in virtualization support on operating systems such as Oracle Linux 7 and Microsoft Windows 7 and newer; exposes a broader set of CPU instructions to the guest OS, enabling applications to make use of the latest hardware instruction sets for maximum performance; allows operating systems to directly recognize USB 3.0 devices and operate at full 3.0 speeds; supports “drag and drop” of content between all Windows, Linux and Oracle Solaris guests and the host on all host platforms; and enables data to be encrypted on virtual hard disk images transparently during runtime, using the industry-standard AES algorithm with up to 256 bit data encryption keys (DEK).
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