Advantage(s) of VirtualBox vs. Windows 7 V PC?

[Perryg]

I moved completely to Linux some time ago. Thank you Vista! If I need Windows I have it as a guest. I admit a small amount of withdrawal pains but they went away fast enough.

[karlkras]

I moved completely to Linux some time ago. Thank you Vista! If I need Windows I have it as a guest. I admit a small amount of withdrawal pains but they went away fast enough.

Yeah, I've been back and forth a couple of times now. A few years back I swore off Windows altogether (thank god I bypassed the Vista era), but after leaving a position @ IBM a couple of years ago I was sucked backed into the Windows abyss, purchased an HP laptop preloaded with W7 Pro and that's how I got here.
I'm a bit nervous to try to move the system to be natively hosted by Linux at this point. Worried about running into hardware configuration issues and such (this is a work system for me), but after I re-acclimate to the Linux world I may take the plunge.

[Technologov]

***Lets Sum This UP***

Back in 2007, when VirtualBox v1.x was released, it was quite close to VirtualPC in terms of features, was faster, but was less stable.

In 2011? VirtualPC vs VirtualBox v4.0 ? Forget it !
Since 2002 until 2009 VirtualPC almost did not improve. VirtualBox progress was fantastic during last 4 years. (2007-2011)
(Yes, I used Connectix VirtualPC 5.1, released in year 2002)

VirtualBox 4 kicks ass of VirtualPC on almost all features:

1. Linux/UNIX guests. VirtualPC provides no additions.
2. SMP. VirtualPC VMs have only 1 vCPU. VirtualBox up to 32 vCPUs.
3. RAM. VirtualPC VMs are limited to about 2 GiB of RAM IIRC. VirtualBox officially supports 16 GiB of RAM per VM. (and with patches even 48 GiB)
4. Multi-Monitor. VirtualPC VMs are limited to single-monitor.
5. Developer's APIs. VirtualPC basically lacks those AFAIK.
6. Graphics / 3D Acceleration: VirtualPC can't do that at all. VirtualBox does OpenGL fine, and DX experimentally.
7. 64-bit guests: VirtualPC doesn't support it.
8. Snapshots: There are no branched snapshots in VirtualPC.
9. GuestExecute: ability to execute applications in VM, right from host. VirtualBox has it.
10. Enterprise features: GINA/PAM authentication, memory balloon, PageFusion, Teleportation, iSCSI, ...

conclusion: VirtualPC can compete at best with VirtualBox 1.x.

-Technologov