VirtualBox?

I was reading the Linux Journal’s “Readers’ Choice Awards 2011” this morning and came across VirtualBox. Normally I use VMware for everything but since VirtualBox came in 1st I thought I’d give it a try on my HP Laptop.

I decided to use xubuntu 11.10 since it should be the most responsive. I’m tempted to go with just plain Debian or failing that something with an even smaller footprint. Maybe NetBSD. Basically I want something that can run git and bash, maybe something graphical like firefox though not required.

So far the xubuntu install has been very slow. It finished and there were no problems. I’m now downloading and applying updates. It may be an hour before it finishes.

I installed the VirtualBox tools to make it go faster and rebooted. Until I had done that it was impossibly slow. Now it’s slow, like a 1991 version of windows on a slow computer, but it is workable. I ssh’d into another box and the fonts suck compared to those on putty. At this stage I’m not sure what I will do. Also started up firefox and it was slow but acceptable. VirtualBox with xubuntu may be a solution…