What is Oracle VirtualBox?

Oracle has been on such a buying and renaming spree that it is difficult to identify the products, especially for those who had worked on one of the products before Oracle bought it. We’ll try to provide you with brief history of Oracle products, so that it help you sink in all the information. Also, knowing the past of the product helps you better relate to product.

One of such product, which has been in the news lately is Oracle VirtualBox. Oracle VM VirtualBox (formerly Sun VirtualBox, Sun xVM VirtualBox and Innotek VirtualBox) is an x86 virtualization software package, created by software company Innotek GmbH.

Sun Microsystems acquired innotek in February 2008. Oracle Corporation acquired Sun in January 2010 and re-branded the product as “Oracle VM VirtualBox”.

VirtualBox Version and History Summary:

• version 1.3.2, released 2007, January (first public release, before that it was all internal)
• version 1.5.0, released 2007, September 4
• Sun Microsystems acquired innotek in February 2008
• version 2.0.0, released 2008, September 4
• version 3.0.0, released 2009, June 30
• Oracle acquired Sun in January 2010
• version 4.0.0, released 2010, December 22
• version 4.1.0, released 2011, July 19
• version 4.2.0, released 2012, September 13

Oracle VM VirtualBox supported host operating systems include Linux, Mac OS X, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Solaris, and OpenSolaris; there is also a port to FreeBSD. Supported guest operating systems include versions and derivations of Windows, Linux, BSD, OS/2, Solaris and others. Since release 3.2.0, VirtualBox also allows limited virtualization of Mac OS X guests on Apple hardware, though OSX86 can also be installed using VirtualBox.

Since version 4.1, Windows guests on supported hardware can take advantage of the recently implemented WDDM driver included in the guest additions; this allows Windows Aero to be enabled along with Direct3D support.

As of April 14, Oracle made pre-build virtual machines of PeopleSoft HCM 9.2, ELM 9.2 and FSCM 9.2 for VirtualBox available. These virtual machines enable you to get a PeopleSoft Demo up and running within an hour, without installation! Have a look at the below posts if you’re interested in setting up 9.2 demo environments in an hour using VirtualBox!

PeopleSoft ELM 9.2 Image on Virtual Box

PeopleSoft HCM 9.2 Image on Virtual Box

PeopleSoft FSCM 9.2 Image on Virtual Box