I've been using 64-bit VirtualBox for some years, happily. It currently has one virtual machine, 64-bit Win7, used for Stamps.com and Turbotax (oh, yeah, monthly Critical Updates).
It has had 32-bit Slackware, a brief installation of Ubuntu just to see what was what (took about a day to figure out Ubuntu was not welcome), an evaluation of Qimo for Kids (I'm a board member of the public library -- we did install it at all four branches for kids, they love it). Had XP, gone to the great byte bucket in the sky, good riddance.
I have always downloaded the
*.run file from Sun and now Oracle (there is an OpenSource version and a SlackBuild from SalckBuilds.org for it). Never had any problem with installing VirtualBox with the "binary version" (you go to
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads, get the Extension Pack for the current version, then click the link
VirtualBox for Linux Hosts,
All Distributions and
AMD64).
Install by executing
Code:
sh VirtualBox-4.3.10-93012-Linux_amd64.run
That installs in
/opt/VirtualBox by default.
Before you install any virtual machines, give some thought to where you're going to install them; the default is in your home directory. If you have a spare partition (or a second drive) it might be a good idea to chose to install your virtual machines there (keep in mind that you're installing a full-boat operating systems and it'll need disk space).
In my own environment, I set aside a 92 GB partition that is mounted to
/var/lib/virtual for virtual machines and VirtualBox has no problem dealing with that. I would do this regardless of which virtual software you may chose (they pretty much all default to your home directory if I remember correctly).
In any even, when VirutalBox is installed, the manual is installed with it (in
/opt/VirtualBox/UserManual.pdf) -- that contains instructions for installing the Extension Pack (you want that), installing an operating system and installing Guest Additions (you want those). The Guest Additions appear as a disk drive (in a Windows installation) and need to be installed from within the guest operating system of support of USB, graphcs and sound (plus some other handy-dandy stuff). The Extension Pack is installed once after VirtualBox is installed and covers all virtual machines you may create (the Guest Additions are installed in each virtual machine).
Anyway, I don't have problems with VirutalBox, it works.
Hope this helps some.