Oracle VirtualBox is a well known free and open source, cross-platform virtualization software , Today Oracle announced release of virtualbox 5.0 , with new features like Paravirtualization support and disk encryption etc . see complete change list in press release.
Changes and improvements :
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Paravirtualization Support : Oracle VM VirtualBox is able to expose a paravirtualization interface to facilitate accurate and efficient execution of software. Once the virtual machine platform is defined, Oracle VM VirtualBox improves guest OS performances by leveraging built-in virtualization support (KVM on Linux guests and Hyper-V on Windows guests).
- Introduced Headless and Detachable start options :
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USB 3.0 Devices
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Bi-Directional Drag and Drop Support for Windows
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Disk Image Encryption : Oracle VM VirtualBox 5.0 allows for encrypted virtual disk images by leveraging AES algorithm in XTS mode (128-bit or 256-bit); since the DEK is stored as part of the virtual machine configuration file, encryption introduces a further security feature that will ask for a password while starting the virtual machine.
- Hot Swap SATA virtual drives
- Improved VirtualBox Guest Additions