Which type/virtualization software to choose

[Yorus]

Hello!

I've been studying a few things about 2012 Server and I would like to practice by doing simulations of environments that I already know (my company, some client...). This would initially involve a similar 2003 Server with XP/7/10 clients and then update those systems to more modern things (2016 Server, all clients to Windows 10 or even Linux...) as if it were a real migration.

I will have my NUC exclusively for this, with an i5 skylake, 16Gb and 250Gb SSD. Which virtualization system do you consider more comfortable for these practices?, ESXi, Proxmox, Windows 10 Pro with Hyper-V, Virtualbox?. I want something easy to handle, although I almost rule out Hyper-V because its support for XP, 2003 and Linux systems could be better.

Best regards and thanks!

[cobito]

In my case I use Virtualbox because it is comfortable, easy, it is FOSS and it is available for Linux and Windows. That allows me to use the same virtual machine in any operating system which is comfortable for me for certain things. But Virtualbox is not the fastest. I have read (although not tested) that QEMU with KVM (only in Linux) achieves performance close to the guest hardware. And although it is surely not practical for you, there is the possibility of doing passthru to the GPU and having direct access to the hardware, with which the performance in games on a virtual machine is practically the same as on the real hardware.

I do not know the rest of the programs you mention so I can only tell you this: if you want something easy, comfortable and versatile Virtualbox will serve you. If you want to squeeze the hardware to the maximum, the host is Linux and you do not mind dedicating a few hours to document yourself and prepare the virtual machine, then QEMU + KVM.

[kynes]

I see ESXi as much more oriented towards large companies than alternatives like virtualbox. I haven't configured systems with it but I have used them, and the performance difference with a native system is minimal compared to virtualbox.

[Yorus]

I am going to virtualize much more Windows than Linux at first, so I think I will go for Virtualbox, which I also know well, and later on if I want to learn about ESXi or Proxmox I will deal with them.

Thanks!