Oracle VM VirtualBox

A hybrid PC system emulator that uses both software emulation and hardware virtualisation techniques to emulate/virtualise a modern IBM PC compatible computer. It is available in two versions, a proprietary version published by Oracle that is delivered for Microsoft Windows, Solaris, Mac OSX and Linux and an open source version that lacks a few features but is available on a wider number of platforms.

Guest Additions

Similarly to Virtual PC, VirtualBox uses Guest Additions to simplify interaction between the guest operating system and its host, Guest Additions are simply drivers, system extensions and/or applications for the guest OS that interact with VirtualBox or the host OS that allow them to use features such as

Mouse pointer integration
Shared folders
Copy/Paste between host and guest
Drag and drop objects between host and guest
Graphics acceleration and 3D pass throug

At this point in time Oracle only ships Guest Additions for Microsoft Windows and OS/2, Drag'n'drop and shared folders are not supported with the OS/2 GA.

Compatibility issues

Hardware

There is no serial port virtualisation, only pass through to real serial ports via the Superchip or USB, this does not make serial port debugging on a single PC impossible, just that you will have to assign VirtualBox a serial port and use a crossover cable to hook that port up physically to another serial port on your PC.

DOS

There are no Guest Additions available for DOS, you might just as well run your DOS programs from an OS/2 or eComStation guest or host.

Tips

The OS/2 video driver that is part of the Guest Additions, requires GENGRADD to be installed.
For installing eComStation 1 and 1.1 on VirtualBox you may need to disable Nested Paging in the "System>Acceleration" tab on the settings pane, this may be needed on eComStation Preview as well. It is usually OK to enable Nested Paging again after the systems have been installed.

Links

Publisher

Innotek Systemberatung (Original developer)
Sun Microsystems
Oracle