OSBoxes – Free Unix/Linux Virtual machines for VMWare and VirtualBox
I have been using Linux for the past
five years. My first operating system was CentOS. Later, I moved to
OpenSUSE, and tried many distros such as Debian, Fedora, finally now I
am using Ubuntu as my primary operating system. In the past, I am not
aware of Oracle VirtulaBox or VMWare. So I formatted my Laptop and
Desktop four to five times per month and played with different Linux
operating systems. This is really time-consuming and I didn’t know how
to test an operating system without formatting the Host OS.
One day, one of my colleague advised me
to use any Virtualization tools such as VirtualBox and VMWare etc. He
told me that these tools will help you to install and test most
operating systems of your choice without formatting the Host OS. I felt
happy and immediately installed VirtualBox on my Laptop and started to
test various Linux distributions. Now, I installed Ubuntu 14.04 LTS as
my Host OS and installed Oracle VirtualBox in it, so that I can install
and play with any OS of my choice in my Laptop. These tools are really
helpful if you wish to test different operating systems.
Now, I have more than 20 guest operating
systems in my Laptop and Desktop. Also, I am maintaining a backup copy
of all VMs. So, whenever I want to test a new tool or software, I simply
copy/paste the fresh VMs form the backup and started to test those
tools or OS. This method helped me lot of times. I really don’t have to
format my Laptop/Desktop every time to test a new tool or OS. If you’re
anything like me, I have good news for you. Meet OSBoxes,
an ideal place to find and download all popular Unix/Linux Virtual
machines. You are free to download and use any VM of your choice.
OSBoxes is founded and maintained by Umair Riaz, a Computer science student and Geek. He is specialized in networks, and also he is running an another website called NoobsLab.
As the name implies, NoobsLab publishes open source and Linux related
stuffs everyday, especially for beginners. The idea behind OSBoxes is to
provide virtual machines so anyone can download and use it regardless
of host OS. There are some reasons that some people (who use other OS)
may want to try Linux before they migrate to it, some people simply
don’t want to dual boot their system or they have some kind of hardware
issue, and some people use Linux but also work on other distributions at
the same time. That’s why OSBoxes was born.
OSBoxes offers ready-to-use Unix/Linux
guest operating systems for both architectures 32bit and 64bit for free.
At the moment, OSBoxes offers 30+ Linux/Unix distributions, but they
may add more to the list in near future. Want to try some VMs? Then,
download them from the following links.
- Linux/Unix virtual machines (VDIs) for VirtualBox
- Linux/Unix virtual machines (VMDKs) for VMware Player/Plus/Workstation
All images for
VirtualBox and VMware have the same username and password. After logging
into virtual machine that you’ve downloaded from here you can
change ‘username’ & ‘password’ or create you new user.
- Username – osboxes
- Password – osboxes.org
For Root user account:
- Password – osboxes.org
Cool, isn’t? Just download the VM of your liking and play with it.
If you don’t know, how to use these VM images in VirtualBox and VMWare, check the following guide.
For more details, check the official FAQ section.
That’s all for now. Hope you find it useful.
Cheers!
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