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The VirtualBox Kernel Driver Is Tainted Crap

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  • The VirtualBox Kernel Driver Is Tainted Crap

    Phoronix: The VirtualBox Kernel Driver Is Tainted Crap

    Linux kernel developers have marked Oracle's VirtualBox Linux kernel driver as "tainted crap" due to the overwhelming number of problems this module has caused...

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    Could have just shorted the title to "VirtualBox is Crap" as far as I'm concerned. It will do in a pinch if absolutely no other options are available.

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    • #3
      Originally posted by deanjo View Post
      Could have just shorted the title to "VirtualBox is Crap" as far as I'm concerned. It will do in a pinch if absolutely no other options are available.
      When writing this news post, I was thinking to myself, "VirtualBox... I know Deanjo will comment on this one!"
      Michael Larabel
      https://www.michaellarabel.com/

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      • #4
        Originally posted by Michael View Post
        When writing this news post, I was thinking to myself, "VirtualBox... I know Deanjo will comment on this one!"
        Lol, must be psychic. Time to put on the tinfoil hat.

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        • #5
          VirtualBox is great. Never had any problems with the kernel module and I've been using it since the first 2.x releases. That's more than I can say for VMWare, which has caused several issues (including stopping the keyboard from working, kernel panics on suspend and other things).

          As far as I am concerned, VMWare is the buggy, closed-source piece of crap. VirtualBox is open-source, free and does everything it needs to do.

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          • #6
            I have to agree with BlackStar. Never really had a problem with VirtualBox but have always struggled with VMWare. Though i will say this, ever since Innotek was bought out, the overall quality of VirtualBox has been perpetual decline. Though they do release more point releases, probably related.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by BlackStar View Post
              VirtualBox is great. Never had any problems with the kernel module and I've been using it since the first 2.x releases. That's more than I can say for VMWare, which has caused several issues (including stopping the keyboard from working, kernel panics on suspend and other things).

              As far as I am concerned, VMWare is the buggy, closed-source piece of crap. VirtualBox is open-source, free and does everything it needs to do.
              YMMV!

              As far as quality is concerned, it depends heavily on whether the developers of the v12n solution are actually testing against your kernel version (or better yet, against the *exact kernel* you're using). If not, you are almost guaranteed to experience extreme weirdness, even if the module compiles from source (compilation != correct runtime behavior).

              I've had relatively few problems with BOTH vmware and virtualbox. Most of the problems I do have are entirely in userspace and not the fault of the kernel module (and I don't get a kernel panic or similar).

              Anyway, isn't it a bit harsh to call vboxdrv "tainted" if it's built entirely from GPLed sources? You can defame its quality all you want, but it seems a bit extreme to defame its open/closed-source-ness just because it has a poor quality commonly associated with proprietary software.

              VMware imho is "tainted gold" (works well but proprietary), and vbox is "non-tainted semi-crap"... because I personally haven't had issues with vbox, but I know that others have, so it just depends on your use model, hardware, kernel version, etc. but you can't debate that it is free software (unfortunately there are some proprietary add-ons, but if we're talking about VirtualBox OSE then that argument is moot, anyway).

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              • #8
                Gee wiz. And I thought I was the only one who had issues in Linux. A buddy of mine is also taking panics in Mac OS X. It runs well on Windows, though.

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                • #9
                  VMware

                  One problem with VMware under Linux is their ability to keep up with kernel revisions. As VMware users, we've become used to having to apply various third-party patches to the official host and/or tools sources every time the kernel is updated.

                  The open-vm project has helped a lot in this, but there is still noticable lag at times.

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                  • #10
                    VirtualBox is a great piece of software. I'm not sure what people are ranting about it considering its:

                    - free
                    - gpl
                    - has plenty of great features
                    - very very very easy to use and configure
                    - excellent network features and configurations

                    Michael, in servers environments do you really think someone really cares about 2d/3d? I use vms for other type of things, like apache services, primary domain controllers, proxies , ldap databases, and other stuff.

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