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Is the VirtualBox installed by Discover identical to the official VirtualBox from https://www.virtualbox.org/? Or is it a fork created by Ubuntu developers?

If it is a fork, why was it forked?

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No, VirtualBox in Ubuntu repositories is not a fork.

But it may be a slightly different version number than what is available to download on virtualbox.org

Software in official repositories is tested to work with your version of Ubuntu. For compatibility reasons, it's usually not recommended to install different versions of software than the version packaged with your distribution.

Only install different versions if you actually need them and are willing to deal with potential bugs or compatibility issues that can affect that application as well as other applications that share dependencies.

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    Agree, I would just add that changes in package in Ubuntu repos are mainly in configurations, not source code / application itself. But those configuration changes are mostly for better, they are tested, and may provide better experiences (like better integration with system themes, better autoupdating process (mainly Discord from apt/snap vs .deb. from official website is visible difference), etc, etc.). But it doesn't apply always, and the issue is (relatively often) that APT installs older version than is officialy available on website.
    – Mlocik97
    Commented Sep 22, 2022 at 9:06
  • As of today (2022-09-23), upstream Vbox is 6.1.38. The 20.04 and 22.04 repositories...also have 6.1.38.
    – user535733
    Commented Sep 23, 2022 at 12:45

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