Why not Boxes?

argentwolf · Post by **argentwolf** » Mon Sep 18, 2023 6:28 am

I don't innerstand why more people don't leverage Boxes if they're going to just look at and play around with 'other' distros within their Mint. It's simple, easy, and fast...Virtual Box is almost too powerful and complicated an apparatus for the easy stuff. Or am I simply wrong?

Post by **RIH** » Mon Sep 18, 2023 7:13 am

Personally, I started with VirtualBox before Boxes existed.
When it came along, I tried it out but it didn't do anything for me that VirtualBox did & I knew my way confidently around VirtualBox and its' foibles.

So, a bit like swapping to another distribution than Mint for my daily driver -

I am sure that there are worthy candidates out there, but I am completely content with what Mint is offering me unless something drastic happens.

dazzleflash · Post by **dazzleflash** » Mon Sep 18, 2023 7:53 am

same.
virtualbox is good. It's not that complicated it just has a lot of options which is good, for me.

another thing is the macification of gnome. I dislike it.

One day gnome will just have big pictures of vegetables and when you click on them, they dance.
Advanced options are not an option.

argentwolf · Post by **argentwolf** » Mon Sep 18, 2023 8:18 am

nutsalot wrote: ⤴Mon Sep 18, 2023 7:53 am One day gnome will just have big pictures of vegetables and when you click on them, they dance.
Advanced options are not an option.

You know you don't have to run Gnome in order to use Boxes, Yes?

argentwolf · Post by **argentwolf** » Mon Sep 18, 2023 8:23 am

"The choice between VirtualBox and GNOME Boxes depends on user needs and preferences. VirtualBox offers advanced features and flexibility, while GNOME Boxes provides seamless integration and a user-friendly interface for Linux users. GNOME Boxes is ideal for those who want a simple virtualization tool, while VirtualBox is better for those who need more customization options."

"Virtualization Showdown: VirtualBox vs GNOME Boxes"
https://kranthicodes.hashnode.dev/virtu ... nome-boxes

trinidad · Post by **trinidad** » Mon Sep 18, 2023 9:53 am

I don't innerstand why more people don't leverage Boxes if they're going to just look at and play around with 'other' distros within their Mint.

Me either. Gnome boxes seems like the perfect/best choice for those new to virtualizaiion, which many Mint users are. Leverage is a great choice of words for your comment as well, given that gnome boxes can be modified with bits from virt manager and spice and a little XML writing or editing and be as robust and highly technically advanced as anything else available for virtualization. I think in some cases it's just a gnome hater thing that keeps people from trying it. I admit to being a Debian gnome and wayland user ever since they became available in Debian. I'm only running LMDE cinnamon to test and work with the cinnamon dektop, which i think is so far well implemented. I test and run many desktops and window managers for performance. I'm sure I have used every kind virtualization software there is at one time or another. My last choice from any list would be virtualbox.

Windows 10/11 users Hyper-V is by far the best choice.
Skilled Linux users Qemu/KVM/Virt-manager
New Linux users gnome-boxes

TC

rickNS · Post by **rickNS** » Mon Sep 18, 2023 2:56 pm

trinidad wrote: ⤴Mon Sep 18, 2023 9:53 am
Windows 10/11 users Hyper-V is by far the best choice.
Skilled Linux users Qemu/KVM/Virt-manager
New Linux users gnome-boxes

So the way you see it is there is no place for Virtualbox at all ?

One reason is probably (and mostly) as has already been mentioned,

RIH wrote: ⤴Mon Sep 18, 2023 7:13 am Personally, I started with VirtualBox before Boxes existed.

Virtual box came first, therefore on this forum is talked about the most, asked about the most, etc.

I have heard about boxes, but do not see much talk of it on here. (about 4 threads in three years) And I am sure it not because of any prejudice it is just the way it is.

That said IF a new Mint user had any questions about boxes they are not likely to get much help, as it seems virtualbox is vastly more popular, on this site anyway.

argentwolf · Post by **argentwolf** » Mon Sep 18, 2023 4:08 pm

I may have to start a separate thread to discover exactly what a "skilled Linux user" is.

dazzleflash · Post by **dazzleflash** » Mon Sep 18, 2023 5:34 pm

argentwolf wrote: ⤴Mon Sep 18, 2023 8:18 am You know you don't have to run Gnome in order to use Boxes, Yes?

You know it's called "Gnome Boxes", Yes? It follows the gnome style/ethos. Even the scant text help page. https://help.gnome.org/users/gnome-boxes/stable/

I do see the advantage of making things easier. I also see the disadvantage of lost functionality when done incorrectly. It's a fine balance that could be achieved with separated advanced options and not just removing them. People on linux tend to like more functionality because experience eventually proves you'll need that functionality and it's nice to have it in the gui.

As mentioned Virtual Box is already popular and has lots of documentation and answered questions from users. I assume it will be the most popular option for a very long time.

argentwolf · Post by **argentwolf** » Mon Sep 18, 2023 7:23 pm

nutsalot wrote: ⤴Mon Sep 18, 2023 5:34 pm As mentioned Virtual Box is already popular and has lots of documentation and answered questions from users. I assume it will be the most popular option for a very long time.

Hell, Windows has popularity, documentation, answers, and all that in spades, while your argument is correct, it doesn't mean it's smart.

dazzleflash · Post by **dazzleflash** » Mon Sep 18, 2023 8:45 pm

https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Boxes

Rationale

While virt-manager does a very good job as a virtual machine management software, it's very much tailored for system administration and virtual machines. Boxes, on the other hand, is targeted towards a typical desktop end-user who wants either a very safe and easy way to try out new operating systems or new (potentially unstable) versions of her/his favorite operating system(s), or needs to connect to a remote machine (home-office connection being a typical use-case). For this reason, Boxes does not provide many of the advanced options to tweak virtual machines provided by virt-manager. Instead, Boxes focuses on getting things working out of the box with very little input from user.

That said, Boxes shares a lot of code with virt-manager project, mainly in the form of libvirt, libosinfo and qemu.

"no advanced options"
"a typical desktop end-user" (as dictated by gnome, dancing potato)

most people who are advanced enough to use and install a vm will want those missing "advanced options" at some point.

If boxes came with os images installed and downloadable with basic login admin/user/pass wizard, it would become popular. It would be good for simple users. I'd also assume that a fair percentage would move on to virtualbox.

https://www.osboxes.org/virtualbox-images/

MikeNovember · Post by **MikeNovember** » Tue Sep 19, 2023 12:25 pm

Hi,

I have used VirtualBox, Boxes, qemu, VMware Workstation Player, and I think VMware is the most user-friendly, and the most powerful. (personal taste, maybe...)

Images of tens of Open Source distros are available for VirtualBox or VMware, from these sites:
https://www.osboxes.org/
https://www.linuxvmimages.com/

Regards,

MN

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