Download VirtualBox 2.0.0

Shortly after the release of version 1.6.6 of VirtualBox, Sun Microsystems has another major update ready for you in the form of version 2.0.0. VirtualBox can be used to install another operating system on a computer in a virtual environment. Virtualbox runs on Windows 2000 and above, Mac OS X, Linux and Opensolaris and can handle a wide range of guest operating systems.

The software is available in two different versions. The full version has more functionality, such as support for USB ports and remote display protocol, but is only free for private use and evaluation purposes. This extra functionality is closed source and is missing in the other version: the open source version. The main improvement in version 2.0.0 is support for 64-bit operating systems. The full changelog of this release looks like this:

The following major new features were added:

• 64 bit guest support (64 bit host only)
• New native Leopard user interface on Mac OS X hosts
• The GUI was converted from Qt3 to Qt4 with many visual improvements
• New version notification
• Guest property information interface
• Host Interface Networking on Mac OS X hosts
• New Host Interface Networking on Solaris hosts
• Support for Nested Paging on modern AMD CPUs (major performance gain)
• Framework for collecting performance and resource usage data (metrics)
• Added SATA asynchronous IO (NCQ: Native Command Queuing) when accessing raw disks/partitions (major performance gain)
• Clipboard integration for OS/2 Guests
• Created separate SDK component featuring a new Python programming interface on Linux and Solaris hosts
• Support for VHD disk images

In addition, the following items were fixed and/or added:

• VMM: VT-x fixes
• AHCI/SATA: improved performance
• GUI: keyboard fixes
• Linux installer: properly uninstall the package even if unregistering the DKMS module fails
• Linux additions: the guest screen resolution is properly restored
• Network: added support for jumbo frames (> 1536 bytes)
• Shared Folders: fixed guest crash with Windows Media Player 11
• Mac OS X: Ctrl+Left mouse click doesn’t simulate a right mouse click in the guest anymore. Use Hostkey+Left for a right mouse click emulation. (bug #1766)

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