Packt asked us a couple of months ago if they could send us their VirtualBox 3.1 Beginner’s Guide for reviewing.
It took me a while to actually get started reading the book, but once I got started I finished it extremely fast.
The book is really down to basics, it gives a good explanation of what VirtualBox is capable of doing , and how it works, it explains in depth how to install VirtualBox on different platforms and how to install different platforms in VirtualBox
In 8 different chapters the author covers Installing VirtualBox on both Windows and Linux , how to use the Guest Additions for these platforms that allow you to make better of your graphical hardware and provide you with seamless integration of the different window managers.
It also explains you about different disk formats and how to use them , about copying cloning and other interesting
topics .. and it shows you how to get Virtual Appliances from the Internet and use them for testing purposes.
The last chapter of the book explains you how you can use alternative front ends for VirtualBox and how to build a headless server with them.
I must say the most surprising chapter was the 6th which covered all different aspects of Networking with virtualization explaining five different methods of connecting a virtual box to your network, something most other books on virtualization often neglect to tackle.
As the title says it’s the Beginner’s Guide, so don’t expect any fancy in depth topics in the book, as an advanced user you’ll speed to trough this book in no time. But for the reader new to Virtualization this is the ultimate guide to start with …