Linux Dummies 9th

Chapter 20
The Virtual World
In This Chapter
▶ What’s a virtual server?
▶ Installing VirtualBox
▶ Getting ready to do real tasks with virtual machines
The real problem is not whether machines think, but whether men do.
— B. F. Skinner (1904–1990)
While the term virtual server sounds an awful lot like air guitar, virtual
servers are actually a good thing. Virtual servers allow you to support
multiple servers on a single physical machine, saving both space and
money. They are quickly becoming all the rage in the corporate world, but
they also have a place in the home environment. A virtual server allows you
to install more than one Linux distribution on a single computer or to have
Linux and Windows running on the same computer!
In this chapter, we detail exactly what a virtual server is — it’s a bit more
complicated than playing air guitar — and we show you how to install and
use one virtual server, VirtualBox.
Understanding What Virtual Servers Are
In this fast-paced world of changing technology, nothing is taken for granted.
In the old days, if you needed to run ten separate servers on your network,
you had to go out and purchase ten separate systems, and then place them in
a huge data center where they took up lots of space.
Nowadays, you have another tool at your disposal: the virtual server, software
that gives you the same capabilities as all that hardware. With virtual
servers, you can run all ten separate servers on one hardware system. You