OStatic

It's easy for people who are skeptical of open source software to come up with a dozen reasons -- some perfectly valid -- to not give it a chance. Chief among them are uncertainty about which applications to try and an unwillingness to alter their computers in any way. Click2Try is a great way to try open source software in a virtual environment without the hassle of downloads and installation.

Launched earlier this year, Click2Try offers an assortment of open source apps and entire Linux distributions on a private virtual machine for a single session, no registration required. To save sessions and return later, you'll need to become a registered user and provide an email address.

There are several categories of software to choose from, including education, sysadmin, and productivity apps. There are also three Linux operating systems available: Ubuntu, openSUSE, and CentOS. Unfortunately, they all use the GNOME desktop so if you want to give KDE a whirl, you're out of luck. Starting an app in a virtual environment is a simple two-click affair that has you up and running in no time.?

Virtualization software vendor VirtualBox has released a new beta of version of VirtualBox 3.0 with a heavy emphasis on graphics support that's sure to please anyone who uses graphics-intensive games and applications. VirtualBox 3.0 beta 1 contains a number of improvements and updates to existing features, squashes several bugs, and it also has three new major features.

Many people love Linux but aren't able to commit to it full time. Some folks use peripherals that Linux can't yet accommodate, while others need applications for which open source options don't exist. Fortunately, virtualization makes it possible to put your favorite Linux distribution right on your Mac or Windows PC.

To virtualize a computer means to section off an area of the hard drive and put a second, fully-functional operating system on it, essentially turning one computer into two. Let's look deeper.