Yesterday I was a newbie... today I feel like a pro! Of course, that isn't entirely true, but I have had lots of fun and lots of tears with virtual machines in the last 24 hours. And I have got to admit, it feels amazing that I am able to install and run operating systems, without fearing that I will cause harm to the one I am actually running.
I remember some months ago as I installed three Linux operating systems on my normal computer. Suddenly, everything disappeared from the start up of the computer and I feared that I was going to lose lots of data, and lots of time.
I managed to solve the problem in the end, but still, it was quite terrible.
WIth virtual machines it is so much easier. I don't have to fear this, because if something goes wrong, my normal operating system is still safe and sound in the background. IN that way, I can try all sorts of operating systems and Linux installations, without causing harm to my present system. It will not slow down my present system either, with the exception of the moments in which I actually use the virtual machines.
Today, I have written two articles in the IP Address Guide that are related to virtual machines and VPS services in all kinds of ways. Yesterday, I tried to install ownCoud on my virtual machine, and today I installed it on an actual VPS. This is a service in which you are in full control yourself of the cloud and what is on it. It is quite cool. If you want to find out how you can install and run ownCloud on your own server, follow these instructions: https://www.ipaddressguide.org/how-to-visit-the-webserver-running-on-a-virtual-machine-with-virtualbox-on-the-host-machine/
It is one thing to run a virtual machine. But, how can you actually test that the web server that you installed on the virtual machine is running? And how can you make changes to the website that you have created? And how can you see all of this on the host computer hosting the virtual machine, and not just on the virtual machine itself? After all, the virtual machine uses the Internet connection of the host, and thus, it has the same internal IP address as the host. This causes trouble, but there is a way to solve it. You can find out more in this article: https://www.ipaddressguide.org/how-to-visit-the-webserver-running-on-a-virtual-machine-with-virtualbox-on-the-host-machine/
All in all, this has been some very interesting hours and I am happy that I have finally had the chance to work with virtual machines!