To: list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, 19 November 2011, 19:02
Subject: [LUG] VirtualBox version
I use VBox quite a lot, and find it very useful. The version I have
installed from the repos is 3.2.8_OSE, which is the Open Source Edition.
Looking through synaptic I see that there is another version 4.1 in the
list. So some questions for the
experts please.
Is it worth installing the 4.1 version, which is not marked OSE?
If so should I remove the current version first or can they both be
available?
When I installed v 3.2.8 I don't remember seeing the 4.1 version in the
list. Is it possible that it has been added during normal updates or did
I simply just miss it?
Thanks for any help
Neil
I use VirtualBox very, very heavily all day, every day - it's a really great tool. Good news - it's about the only thing that Oracle haven't completely screwed up since taking over the late lamented Sun Microsystems (see: Solaris, Java, etc).
I definitely recommend the 4.* series over the OSE edition. Unless you are a true free software Stallman-devotee just install the Oracle version (PUEL license vs GPL) and grab the extension pack to enable PXE boot, USB, etc. You're apparently on something Debian-based so make sure you use the proper
apt repo from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads rather than relying on your distribution to roll in the latest and greatest version.
Definitely remove the previous version first. Your VMs will be intact and can be imported to the non-OSE version after install. Current version to get is:
[mat@nihilist SRC]$ rpm -qa | grep -i virtualbox
VirtualBox-4.1-4.1.6_74727_rhel6-1.x86_64
Cheers,
Mat
