which host system to choose

[martyscholes]

BUT some technical differences ARE there

Give an example? I.e. something functional, not just a matter of taste.

ZFS makes cloning a golden image from a zvol a fast and easy process, consuming almost no additional space.
Crossbow networking allows for many different network configurations including VLANs, virtual switches, and bandwidth-limiting. VNICs can be created and destroyed on the fly.

[Armando]

Thinking that all OSes are designed and built the same way seems quite strange to me, to say the least.

OF COURSE I'm NOT talking about functional, "exterior" differences; I know very well that all desktop OSes have to provide the same main features. Also diesel and petrol cars must be as similar as possible from the drivers' point of view, BUT this does NOT mean that the two engines are the same. Their technical differences are very neat, making the diesel engine more suitable for some tasks and the petrol one for others; obviously both cars can "do the same things", but one of them can do certain things better than the other.

I admit I know engines better than OSes (otherwise I wouldn't be interested in any technical advices), but I really find it hard to believe that, for example, Windows and Linux kernels and drivers management and multitasking procedures are the same, perform the same and so on.

Anyway, I'm not here to fight any wars, neither to win any contest or annoy anyone.
I understand this is a somehow unwelcome topic here and so I won't go any further.

[mpack]

I was hoping you could provide something more concrete than that, I was curious to discover what it was. If my "functional" requirement was too much, then just give me an example of a feature that would measurably affect the ability to host a VM? I mean, you interrupted the discussion to tell us we were giving the wrong advice, that some OSs had clear differences, so you had to have something specific in mind right?

[KenZ71]

Yes, I know I am replying to a post that is almost a year old.

The point is my self and the OP are looking for guidance on what makes an ideal OS for a vm.

I know Macs are great for graphic design work

Solaris is used often in financial services

Windows tries do everything for everyone at the expense of needing more resources to do so.

FreeBSD claims to be ideal for high-end servers

But none of these, as far as I know, are ideal for headless VM hosting

To use the petrol vs diesel analogy a diesel engine typically costs more in maintenance and purchase but lasts much longer.

These details would help to steer a newbie down a path.

Stepping off the soapbox

[mpack]

He did get advice: that the host doesn't really matter, that any popular host OS will do, and he should use what he's comfortable with.

I see no point in repeating myself.

[loukingjr]

He did get advice: that the host doesn't really matter, that any popular host OS will do, and he should use what he's comfortable with.

I agree with mpack.
As far as…

But none of these, as far as I know, are ideal for headless VM hosting

I don't think anyone would know what's ideal. It's like asking," What's the ideal car for turning left at speed while listening to opera?".

[scottgus1]

Would you want to do extensive business in Chinatown if you didn't know Chinese? Or Little Italy / Italian? I and my family speak full-blown American English. But my oldest daughter would do Chinatown - she taught herself Chinese. Started at 14, first time she spoke it in public at 18 they said she sounded like she'd been tutored for seven years (brag off) .

All the modern usual OSs can run Virtualbox easily. And every modern OS has a desktop and a point/click interface for Virtualbox. Windows is Windows, slight differences in desktop between 7,8,8.1,10, depending on when you are willing to let support run out. Many of the Linux flavors seem to me to be based on what kind of desktop environment or licensing philosophy the developers/users live by. They'll all fly at running Virtualbox.

But maybe this could be the defining question: Which programming and command window language are you comfortable with or willing/have time to learn? Eventually running guests gets into using the command line & scripts if you really get into it. If one skips the desktop and goes text-only to have more resources for guests, then the command line even more comes into play. Which language do you cmd? Pick the OS that cmd's the same language.