So what is the the most reliable one to use for a Linux distro?
I've been playing with VMs(virtual machines) for quite some time. I started using VBox back in 2009-10 when I still used windows as my main OS and tried my first distros that way, previously I'd used virtual-pc too
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Virtual_PC. Now, in Linux I've found that QEMU does a better job as it allows more control and performance is a bit better, so I'd suggest using that for running Linux guests and VBox, VMware for Windows ones.
Do they use your HDD or do they create their own virtual HDD?
As the name implies, it uses virtualization at the hardware side; CPU, HDD, USB, GPU. It does use host's resources too to achieve that, as you need to assign some portion to them, for example, if you want to run any distro running KDE, host's RAM must be 4GB at least, so you can assign 2GB to it for a better experience, otherwise it might not even run. Note that as any other software install in your pc, it'll only use resources as needed, in the example above, the guest you assigned 2GB will not use it all unless it has to, this is by design so the host don't run out of resources.
To install VBox, first check if it is available from your distro's repos, if it's not, download it from here
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads choose the one for Linux. You will also need to download VBox extension pack from that same page. Creating VMs is quite easy, after installing VBox, launch it and the interface is quite intuitive and straightforward; you'll find everything in the menus. QEMU is a different story, you can use via command-line only, that is, you will create, run and manage your VMs by typing commands in the terminal, or you can install virt-manager, which is a GUI to do the same. Personally, I prefer the command-line mode as it allows more control and it isn't that difficult once you get the basics. To install QEMU, you'll need to install these pkgs:
qemu,
qemu-system-x86,
qemu-block-extra, qemu-utils, libguestfs. This will allow you to create, run and manage VMs via cli, if you want the GUI, then you'll need to install the
virt-manager pkg too. Running VMs is a fun and reliable way to learn new things as you don't need to compromise your host to try stuff you're not sure what they might do, or simply if you want to try new software, customizations, themes, icon themes or anything else you can think of, really.
You might want to read these:
In this link you'll find the best documentation I've ever found on using VMs with QEMU as it contains lots of great examples, tips & tricks and best practices.
Here you'll find description and basic usage examples for
virt-manager.
Hey, running VMs is one of my preferred hobbies, so if you need some kind of help, don't hesitate to ask.
