Are you just getting started with desktop virtualization?  Let’s look at the new book VirtualBox 3.1 Beginner’s Guide, which is a book that may be a great help getting started with desktop virtualization quickly and easily.

Computers today can be very complicated machines.  Even though popular mobile devices are being pointed out as the future in easy computing, there are still many reasons you’ll want to use a full PC for the foreseeable future.  However, constant upgrades and changes make it hard to stay on top and often mess up older programs.  This is where virtualization comes in, as it lets you run older or newer operating systems on top of your main computer without getting rid of your existing version of Windows, programs, and files.

If this sounds complicated, trust me, it’s not that bad.  Modern virtualization programs are quite easy to use, but still can be somewhat confusing.  This is where VirtualBox 3.1 Beginner’s Guide comes in.  Virtualization sounds confusing, so author Alfonso V. Romero simply steps you through the process.  Ever step of each process is demonstrated with a screenshot, so you’ll easily know what’s going on even if you’ve never ran a virtual machine before.  When I first started reading the book, I thought at first that it didn’t explain enough at first, but soon it became clear that the author intended you to learn by doing.  He finishes each chapter with a pop quiz; the questions and provided answers were often humorous, but may help drive home the points if you’re having trouble remembering them.  Otherwise, you don’t have to do the quizzes; after all, that’s the virtue of self-study, right?

If you’ve already been using desktop virtualization, but have not done much more than run XP on your newer computer or played with Linux on top of Windows, then this book still offers stuff to help you take virtualization even further.  Chapter 6 covers advanced networking with VirtualBox, helping you create virtual networks so you can simulate and group-manage several virtual machines just like you would an office of traditional computers.  Chapter 7 then takes you on an overview of Virtual Appliances, prebuilt virtual machines that have become popular with VMware and VirtualBox.  Chapter 8 shows you how you can remotely manage your virtual machines, though there’s one other way that the book doesn’t mention: since they’re all running directly on your main normal computer, you could always manage your virtual machines via Remote Desktop or a tool like LogMeIn.  I’ve done this several times, and it works great .  Finally, Appendix A covers VirtualBox’ snapshot feature, which lets you roll back changes in your virtual machines.  In all, these sections will be interesting and informative for more advanced users.

However, if you’ve been using virtualization for years and already understand the concepts (or perhaps could manage virtual machines in your sleep), then this book is likely not for you.  But, you still could find it useful if you ever need to teach your boss, coworker, or friend how to use virtualization.

Mac and Linux Users Welcome, Too

While this book is generally Windows-centric, VirtualBox itself runs on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.  The program itself works mainly the same across all these platforms, so even if you’re wanting to use VirtualBox to run Windows on your Mac you may still find it helpful.  It will look somewhat different, so you may want to check out the sample chapter (link below) first and make sure you can follow it on your operating system.

The eBook

Considering I reviewed an eBook copy of VirtualBox 3.1 Beginner’s Guide, I thought I’d mention the overall eBook experience with the book.  First, this book is published by Packt Publishing, and they offer all of their books either in standard paper (a real book) or as a DRM-free PDF.  Just like most publishers today, they offer the eBook versions for much less than the paper version, so if you don’t mind reading on your screen or ereader device they can be a great value.  The PDFs are fully searchable and are designed to fit nicely on the screen.  The actual text of the book is about 520 pixels wide, so it will display nicely even on smaller screens.  And, you can even print the eBook yourself if you decide you’d rather have it on paper.

You can always re-download your PDF eBook purchases from Packt with your online account.  Simply login to your account and scroll down to the Recent Downloads section.  Here you can select and download your purchased eBooks along with other free eBooks that may be available.  The download will be in zip format, so download it and then extract the PDF from the zip file, and you’re ready to read.

One interesting thing about Packt eBooks is that they include your name and billing address on the footer of each page.  This is an anti-piracy measure, and I found it a nice way to make sure people are honest with their digital purchases while still giving you the freedom of a PDF eBook without DRM.

Conclusion

VirtualBox 3.1 Beginner’s Guide is available directly from Packt Publishing for $44.99 for the standard book or $33.99 for the eBook.  If you’d rather have both, you can purchase both the ebook and the paper book as a set for $50.99.  Packt offers free shipping in many locations around the world.  Alternately, if you’re an Amazon customer, it is also available from Amazon.com for $39.50, which is actually the best deal if you wish to purchase the paper book.  Or, if you’d like to read more before you actually purchase the book, check out this sample chapter for a full exercise you can try out and see if this book is good for you.

As always, the VirtualBox software itself is a free download from Oracle (formally Sun).  You may notice that the current version is 3.2 (or possibly a higher version, depending on when you check), but as long as the version is 3.something, it should generally look and work the same as the book shows.  The recent 3.2 update added some features, but it didn’t change anything covered in the book.