VirtualBox 2.2: OpenGL for Linux and Solaris guests

Another update for VirtualBox was released yesterday: VirtualBox 2.2.

OpenGL for Linux and Solaris guests

If you remember, 3D acceleration was introduced for Windows XP guests in VirtualBox 2.1, and now similar functionality had been ported for Linux and Solaris VMs. A quick experiment shows almost 4x performance improvement for 3D between VirtualBox 2.1.2 and VirtualBox 2.2 – I've simply booted Ubuntu live cd and used glxgears to get some idea about the efficiency of new 3D acceleration support.

Host-only networking

Another interesting feature added in 2.2 is the host-only networking. Similarly to a bridged networking, it allows virtual machines exchange network traffic with each other and with the host, but without a need for the real network interface on the host system.

Full support for the OVF

Open Virtualization Format (OVF) is now fully supported, which means you can import OVF systems or export any of your VMs into OVF.

This release brings a few more improvements, so please consult the VirtualBox changelog for all the details.

See also:

• VirtualBox 2.1.2
• VirtualBox changelog
• OVF page @ VMware
• Download VirtualBox