I want to give end users the option to start a Virtual Machine with some software preinstalled and configured, so that they can start working on a full Linux environment right away, using a full GUI.
I have tried exporting and distributing a VirtualBox 6.0 image, but this is a considerably large file (difficult to share) and it failed to start on some hosts (I cannot reproduce the setup anymore).
I have also tried Vagrant and I understand that I can write a script that produces a virtual machine that I can start ("click-and-play") from VirtualBox or other software. I know I can also use it via ssh, but this is something I don't need: I only want a GUI.
From my understanding, sharing a Vagrant script is a more general & reliable solution than sharing a VirtualBox image. However, I have been told that Vagrant does more than what I want and I am "misusing" it for this use case. Are both Vagrant and VirtualBox good solutions for this use case or not?
Note for reviewers: This question is similar to How to share a VirtualBox image? but different in the fact I am targetting end users (that always need a GUI). It is also similar to Want to distribute Linux virtual machine for students to work on but different in the perspective of understanding the differences between Vagrant and VirtualBox.
