First time VM installation

xh1

Hi,
I have a Dell Inspiron E1505 laptop. Originally there was just one OS on it - WinXP. I then installed GRUB and a native install of LinuxMint 18.2 MATE on a separate partition.
I’m looking to learn the ins and outs of Linux with the hope to become a Linux SysAdmin at some point.

So in addition to Mint, I would also like to become acquainted with CentOS and OpenSUSE. But I’d like to do that via VM (free if I can) which, at the moment, I don’t have installed on my machine.

I know of virtualbox.org and vmware.com, but I’m not sure what specific product to use from either of these companies. Please keep in mind that I’m a beginner. Your help is appreciated.

heuristica

Hi there!

If you are getting started with virtual machines, there are some options that you should have in mind. VMWare has a pro version, but if you are not a company you are not interested in this features. If you would like to become a sysadmin, you might want to have this option in mind.

Virtual Box is quite intuitive. It's really simple to configure and create new virtual machines. You can easily change all the virtual machine settings even once it has been created. Also you can choose different type of memory configuration.

If you are just getting to creating new virtual machines, i would advice to start with Virual Box. But if you want to become an expert, I advice you to try everyone of them so you can see for yourself the different ways of virtualizating your devices.

There are other software for creating virtual machines. (You may need to translate the web - use deepl.com for that)