My daughter is starting a college computing course next month and has been told they will be using linux.
She has a fairly recent, last 5yrs or less I think, intel macbook but knows nothing about linux or vm’s.
I advised her to install Ubuntu in a VM when she asked about it, she asked how to do this. Initial thought is Virtualbox but I’ve not used MacOS since well before it became MacOS nor used VirtualBox in many years, have heard of new shiny new things like UTM, Parallels & VMWare.
Is it a reasonable suggestion to just use VirtualBox? Is there a better option?
Bit of a dad moment; “Just install Linux and then I can help you”, “But how do I install Linux dad?”
Does she even need Linux? 99% of things that run on Linux will also run on MacOS (or have a MacOS version). If you need a VM, Virtualbox is good enough. I’d recommend Ubuntu, simply because that’s what most people use, ergo you’ll find tutorials/information for every little aspect of it.
VMWare offers free personal licenses, and it’s one of the best VM solutions imo
VMware Fusion has a free version for personal use for one VM. IMO it’s the most polished, and the recent tech preview supports video acceleration (really pretty graphics) and super fast drag n drop for easy and fast file sharing between Mac and Linux.
UTM or Virtualbox would be the best alternatives, these have no limitations and are completely free but lack some of the polish and stability present in Fusion.
Least expensive is Virtualbox or UTM.
Simplest is Parallels.
I’m running a Win11 ARM VM on UTM and it’s been flawless. Can’t imagine it would do worse with a less demanding OS.
