SANTA CLARA, CALIF. Sun Microsystems, Inc. has announced a new version of Sun xVM VirtualBox, its high performance, free and open source desktop virtualization software, that offers the latest must-have features for developers and enterprise users.

Users of xVM VirtualBox 2.1 software will benefit from significant improvements in graphics and network performance, easier configuration, hardware platform support for the latest processors and additional interoperability.

xVM VirtualBox software lets users create "virtual machines" into which they can install their operating system (OS) of choice. As a result, users can access their favorite software using any OS and developers can easily build, test and run cross-platform, multi-tier applications on a single laptop or desktop computer.

xVM VirtualBox software is the first major open source hypervisor to support the most popular host OSes, including Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris and OpenSolaris.

"With each new update, xVM VirtualBox software is evolving into a must-have tool for developers looking for new ways to develop software," said Jim McHugh, vice president of marketing, Datacenter Software, Sun Microsystems.

He added: "With xVM VirtualBox software, developers all around the globe are turning their desktops and laptop computers into testing labs, creating multiple virtual machines, networking them together and deploying them using any OS. The excitement in the developer community has also taken xVM VirtualBox software into IT departments, where we've seen desktop virtualization software being used to solve issues of PC management, software distribution and desktop security."