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1) Which virtualbox software should I use please? Although in Mint 17.3, only Oracle Virtualbox seems to be available through its Software Manager. I intend to upgrade to Mint 18.1, do not know if that will offer any more choice.

2) My impression is that the virtualbox software keeps the guest OS as one big file. Is it possible to obtain these os-images anywhere? I have installation disks, valid licences, and stickers for both WinXP and Win7, but installing WinXP takes hours, and I seem to recall reading somewhere that Microsoft now declines to make available the old previous security upgrades to virtual images inside Linux. It would be nice to obtain a virtual os-image that could be installed instantly and have all the available updates already incorporated.

Such virtual OS images are offered by Robolinux, but a comment at the end of this article gives it a very bad review http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/80540.html and Robolinux is also way down the page-hit ranking at Distrowatch.

Thanks.

Hi Grumpy:

1) Use the most recent version of Virtualbox that is available for whichever linux distro you are using (Mint, in your case). The version is updated periodically by Oracle and the package maintainers for Mint will make updated packages available for the various modules (main Virtualbox package, host and guest modules, extension pack etc.). Follow what is made available. If your question is more concerning the choice of a hypervisor other than Virtualbox, VMWare is a popular alternative and the combination of native linux tools KVM / QEMU / libvirt is as well. I have no experience with Mint, so others here may be knowledgeable concerning what is offered in its repositories (although KVM should be, as mentioned, natively available to any linux distro).

2) You are correct concerning the way that Virtualbox (and other hypervisors) store virtual machines in files. However, in my experience, I have never had any trouble updating any Windows VM installations on a linux host, so I would question that bit of information. Also, other members here have mentioned the availability of "pre-installed" virtual machine images, although I believe these are linux only (you should verify this). I believe jjanel uses a site called "os-boxes" for this purpose. Personally, I have always installed my VMs (linux, Windows or OS X) myself, in order to optimize the configuration to my liking.

Cheers - hope this helps.

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For info, I'm running Linux Mint 18.1 and use the VirtualBox repo to keep up-to-date with the latest releases.

Information on how to install the VirtualBox repo is available at https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads (Debian-based Linux distributions section).

Personally, I installed the repo and VirtualBox itself by first uninstalling any Virtualbox packages that already existed on my system, then:

The only caveat is that if you're also using the VirtualBox extension pack, every time a new release of VirtualBox comes down the pipe you have to download the latest extension pack from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads and install it (double click on it if you're using the GUI).

However, if you're uncomfortable with any of this, and don't mind not always having the latest version of VirtualBox, just use the Mint repo version:

sudo apt-get install virtualbox

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Here: many Linux distros, up&running, in "10minutes"[saysMe]! WinMonster UNdisturbed!
EDIT: Ignore: ooops, sorry, I think I got your guest/host desires BACKWARD XP?

I have only searched the Linux Mint Software Manager for virtualbox because I thought that was a generic name. What are the names of other software that does the same or similar please?

I can then search the Software Manager to see if they are easily available in Linux Mint.

Thanks.

Rikkkk mentioned the main alternatives in post #33.

If you use the Mint repo version, you get 4.3.x installed.
4.3 was EOL on January 1st, 2017

5.1 via repo is the way to go!

Just sayin'

I would be tempted to download the latest from Oracle.com/Virtualbox.org and get the .deb version. Then use command line to sudo dpkg -i (packagename) and let it rip. Might have to fool with sudo /sbin/vboxsomething too later

1 members found this post helpful.