libguestfs vs Virtual CD
libguestfs
libguestfs.orgVirtual CD
virtualcd-online.comSide by side
| Figure | libguestfs | Virtual CD |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 2 | 4 |
| Spec score · Virtual Drive Software | 8.7 (#3) | 7.5 (#14) |
| Founded | 2009 | 1989 |
| Purpose | libguestfs is a library and set of tools for accessing and modifying virtual machine disk images. | Virtual CD creates images of optical media so users can access them without the physical disc. |
| Security | It accesses guest filesystems through a Linux kernel in a qemu virtual machine, usually running as a non-root user, and can use sVirt with the libvirt backend and SELinux. | Virtual CDs can be password protected and encrypted; the maker’s help page says encrypted data uses AES 256 encryption. |
| Support | Users can ask questions on the libguestfs mailing list or IRC channel #guestfs on Libera Chat; Red Hat Enterprise Linux customers are directed to Red Hat Support. | The maker directs technical questions to its documentation, knowledge base, and support forum, and says it cannot provide telephone support. |
Plans
Virtual CD
- Update$16.95, paid once
- Full version$34.95, paid once
- 5-user license (private use)$69.95, paid once
- 5-user license$119.90, paid once
In their own words
libguestfs
libguestfs is a free library and toolset for working with virtual machine disk images. It can inspect and edit guest files, script changes, create or resize images, make backups, clone virtual machines and build them. The project says it can access almost any disk image, including those from VMware and Hyper-V, and images created by VMware, KVM, qemu, VirtualBox, Xen and other hypervisors; libvirt is not required. Its command-line tools include guestfish, a scriptable shell, and virt-rescue, an interactive rescue shell. The C library has bindings for many languages, with examples for C/C++, Erlang, Go, Java, Lua, OCaml, Perl, Python and Ruby. Guest filesystems are accessed through a Linux kernel in a qemu virtual machine, usually as a non-root user; sVirt with libvirt and SELinux can also be used. It runs on many Linux distributions and Mac OS X, while some virt tools have been ported to Windows. Non-Linux systems may require compiling from source and porting.
Virtual CD
Virtual CD has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.