Comparison of platform virtualization software: Difference between revisions

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== General ==

<!-- Please do NOT change the order of the operating systems from their alphabetic order. -->

{{sticky header}}

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size: smaller; text-align: center; width: auto; table-layout: fixed;"

{| class="wikitable sortable sticky-header" style="font-size: smaller; text-align: center; width: auto; table-layout: fixed;"

|-

! Name

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! Guest OS

! License

|-

! [[86Box]]

| Miran Grča

| x86, x86-64, ARMv7, AArch64

| x86 (Intel 8086 to Pentium II and compatible)

| [[Windows]], [[Linux]], [[macOS]]

| [[Windows]], [[Linux]], [[DOS]], [[Berkeley Software Distribution|BSD]], [[OS/2]], [[Haiku (operating system)|Haiku]]

| {{open source|[[GPL version 3]]}}

|-

! [[bhyve]]

Line 111 ⟶ 120:

| {{Proprietary}}

|-

! [[Hyper-V]] (2012+)

| [[Microsoft]]

| x86-64 with Intel VT-x or AMD-V<!--RemoteFX requires SLAT which is independent of the previous. -->, ARMv8<ref>{{cite web |url=https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2020/02/05/announcing-windows-10-insider-preview-build-19559/ |title=Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 19559|website=blogs.windows.com |access-date=23 February 2020}}</ref>

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| Supported drivers for [[Windows NT]], FreeBSD, Linux ([[SUSE Linux|SUSE]] 10, [[Red Hat Enterprise Linux|RHEL]] 6, [[CentOS]] 6)

| {{Proprietary}}. Component of various Windows editions.

|-

! [[iCore Virtual Accounts]]

| [[ICore Networks|iCore Software]]

| x86

| x86

| Windows XP

| Windows XP

| {{Proprietary}}

|-

! [[Integrity (operating system)|INTEGRITY]]

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| x86, x86-64, IA-64, with [[x86 virtualization]], s390, PowerPC,<ref name="linux-kvm" /> [[ARM architecture|ARM]]<ref name="rhel.kvm.arm" />

| Same as host

| Linux, FreeBSD, illumos

| FreeBSD, Linux, Solaris, Windows, [[Plan 9 from Bell Labs|Plan 9]]

| {{open source|[[Gpl version 2|GPL version 2]]}}

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|-

! [[PikeOS]]

| [[SYSGO]] AG

| PowerPC, x86, ARM, MIPS, SPARC, SuperH[[RISC-V]]

| Same as host

| No host OS, Linux or Windows as dev. hosts

| PikeOS native, Linux, ELinOS, [[Windows]], POSIX, AUTOSAR, Android, [[RTEMS]], [[OSEK]], [[ARINC 653]] APEX, [[ITRON]]

| {{Proprietary}}

|-

Line 275 ⟶ 276:

| x86, x86-64, IA-64, PowerPC, SPARC 32/64, ARM, S/390, MIPS

| x86, x86-64, Alpha, ARM, CRIS, LM32, [[M68k]], MicroBlaze, MIPS, OpenRisc32, PowerPC, S/390, SH4, SPARC 32/64, Unicore32, Xtensa

| Windows ("experimental"<ref name="qemu-windows-host" />), Linux, macOS, Solaris, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, BeOS

| Changes regularly<ref name="QEMU" />

| {{open source|[[GNU General Public License|GPL]]/[[LGPL]]}}

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| No host OS

| Windows, Linux, Windows Embedded, QNX, RTOS-32, VxWorks, OS-9, T-Kernel

| {{Proprietary}}

|-

! ScaleMP vSMP Foundation

| ScaleMP

| x86, x86-64

| Same as host

| No host OS

| Linux

| {{Proprietary}}

|-

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! [[VirtualBox]]

| Innotek, acquired by [[Oracle Corporation]]

| x86, x86-64, ARMv8

| x86, x86-64 (with Intel VT-x or AMD-V, and VirtualBox 2 or later), ARMv8 (from 7.1 on macOS, 7.2 on Windows)

| Windows, Linux, macOS, Solaris, FreeBSD, eComStation

| DOS, Linux, macOS,<ref name="virtualbox" /> FreeBSD, [[Haiku (operating system)|Haiku]], OS/2, Solaris, Syllable, Windows, and OpenBSD (with Intel VT-x or AMD-V, due to otherwise tolerated incompatibilities in the emulated memory management).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?p=17930|title=virtualbox.org • View topic – Theo de Raadt discourages VirtualBox usage..|website=forums.virtualbox.org|language=en-gb|access-date=2017-10-15}}</ref>

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! VMM

| [[OpenBSD]]

| x86-64

| x86, x86-64

| same as host

| OpenBSD

| OpenBSD and Linux guests

Line 577 ⟶ 570:

== Features ==

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size: smaller; text-align: center; width: auto; table-layout: fixed;"

{{sticky header}}

{| class="wikitable sortable sticky-header" style="font-size: smaller; text-align: center; width: auto; table-layout: fixed;"

|- class="sortbottom"

! Name

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| Safety and security critical [[embedded system]]s.

| Up to near native{{Citation needed|date=November 2010}}

| {{Yes}}

|-

! ScaleMP vSMP Foundation

| {{Yes}}, up to 8,192 CPUs and 64 TB per VM{{Citation needed|date=November 2010}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| [[x86 virtualization|Virtualization]]

| Server consolidation, Cloud computing

| ?

| {{Yes}}

|-

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| Virtualized server isolation, server/desktop consolidation, software development, cloud computing, other purposes. Xen powers most public cloud services and many hosting services, such as Amazon Web Services, Rackspace Hosting and Linode.

| Up to native<ref name="unf.edu" />

| {{yes}}

|-

!XCP-ng

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| [[Paravirtualization]] and porting or hardware virtualization

| Virtualized server isolation, server/desktop consolidation, software development, cloud computing, desktop virtualization, public cloud services, hostings services and other purposes.

| Up to native{{Citation needed|date=January 2018}}

| {{yes}}

|-

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== Image type compatibility ==

{{sort-under}}

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align: center; width: auto; table-layout: fixed;"

{| class="wikitable sortable sort-under" style="text-align: center; width: auto; table-layout: fixed;"

|-

! Name

Line 953 ⟶ 931:

! [[ISO image|ISO]]

! [[Directory (computing)|folders]] on host

! {{verth|va=middle|physical disk / <br/>device}}

! {{verth|va=middle|raw / flat <br/>(whole disk)}}<!-- [[IMG (file format)#IMG raw disk image format|IMG]] -->

! {{verth|va=middle|raw / flat <br/>([[Disk partitioning|partition]])}}

<!-- alphabetical order for the image formats: -->

<!-- FIXME: link should go to the product that introduced the file format -->

! {{verth|va=middle|hdd <br/>([[Parallels Workstation|Parallels]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|[[qcow|QCOW]] <br/>([[QEMU]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|[[qcow#qcow2|QCOW2]] <br/>([[QEMU]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|QED <br/>([[QEMU]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|[[VDI (file format)|VDI]] <br/>([[VirtualBox]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|[[VHD (file format)|VHD]] <br/>([[Connectix Virtual PC]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|VHDX <br/>([[Hyper-V]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|[[VMDK]] <br/>([[VMware Workstation|VMware]])}}

<!-- 1. floppy _ 2. ISO _ 3. folder _ 4. physical disk _ 5. raw img disk _ 6. raw img partition _ 7. HDD _ 8. QCOW _ 9. QCOW2 _ 10. QED _ 11. VDI _ 12. VHD _ 13. VHDX _ 14. VMDK -->

<!-- TEMPLATE

Line 986 ⟶ 964:

|- -->

|-

! [[86Box]]

! [[Bochs]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://bochs.sourceforge.net/doc/docbook/user/harddisk-modes.html |title=8.19. Disk Image Modes |publisher=Bochs.sourceforge.net |access-date=2013-10-08}}</ref>

| {{yes}} <!-- floppy -->

| {{yes}} <!-- ISO -->

| {{partial|CD-ROM drive only}} <!-- folder -->

| {{no}} <!-- physical disk -->

| {{yes}} <!-- raw img disk -->

| {{no}} <!-- raw img partition -->

| {{no}} <!-- HDD -->

| {{no}} <!-- QCOW -->

| {{no}} <!-- QCOW2 -->

| {{no}} <!-- QED -->

| {{no}} <!-- VDI -->

| {{yes}} <!-- VHD -->

| {{no}} <!-- VHDX -->

| {{no}} <!-- VMDK -->

|-

! [[Bochs]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://bochs.sourceforge.net/doc/docbook/user/harddisk-modes.html |title=8.19. Disk Image Modes |publisher=Bochs.sourceforge.net |access-date=2013-10-08}}</ref>

| {{yes}}<!-- floppy -->

| {{yes}}<!-- ISO -->

Line 1,075 ⟶ 1,069:

| {{no}} <!-- HDD -->

| {{no}} <!-- QCOW -->

| {{partial|{{nowrap|DOSBox-X}} fork}} <!-- QCOW2 -->

| {{no}} <!-- QED -->

| {{no}} <!-- VDI -->

Line 1,193 ⟶ 1,187:

| {{yes}} <!-- VHDX -->

| {{no}} <!-- VMDK -->

|-

! [[iCore Virtual Accounts]]

| {{dunno}}<!-- floppy -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- ISO -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- folder -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- physical disk -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- raw img disk -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- raw img partition -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- HDD -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- QCOW -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- QCOW2 -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- QED -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- VDI -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- VHD -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- VHDX -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- VMDK -->

|-

! [[HP Integrity Virtual Machines|Integrity Virtual Machines]]

Line 1,483 ⟶ 1,461:

|-

! [[QuickTransit]]

| {{dunno}}<!-- floppy -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- ISO -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- folder -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- physical disk -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- raw img disk -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- raw img partition -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- HDD -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- QCOW -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- QCOW2 -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- QED -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- VDI -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- VHD -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- VHDX -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- VMDK -->

|-

! ScaleMP vSMP Foundation

| {{dunno}}<!-- floppy -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- ISO -->

Line 1,896 ⟶ 1,858:

| {{yes}}<ref name=blktap2 /> <!-- VHD -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- VHDX -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- VMDK -->

|-

!XCP-ng

| {{dunno}}<!-- floppy -->

| {{yes}}<!-- ISO -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- folder -->

| {{yes}}<!-- physical disk -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- raw img disk -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- raw img partition -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- HDD -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- QCOW -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- QCOW2 -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- QED -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- VDI -->

| {{yes}}<!-- VHD -->

| {{no}}<!-- VHDX -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- VMDK -->

|-

Line 1,982 ⟶ 1,928:

! [[ISO image|ISO]]

! [[Directory (computing)|folders]] on host

! {{verth|va=middle|physical disk / <br/>device}}

! {{verth|va=middle|raw / flat <br/>(whole disk)}}

! {{verth|va=middle|raw / flat <br/>([[Disk partitioning|partition]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|hdd <br/>([[Parallels Workstation|Parallels]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|[[qcow|QCOW]] <br/>([[QEMU]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|[[qcow#qcow2|QCOW2]] <br/>([[QEMU]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|QED <br/>([[QEMU]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|[[VDI (file format)|VDI]] <br/>([[VirtualBox]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|[[VHD (file format)|VHD]] <br/>([[Connectix Virtual PC]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|VHDX <br/>([[Hyper-V]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|[[VMDK]] <br/>([[VMware Workstation|VMware]])}}

|}

== Other features ==

{{sort-under}}

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size: smaller; text-align: center; width: auto; table-layout: fixed;"

{| class="wikitable sortable sort-under" style="font-size: smaller; text-align: center; width: auto; table-layout: fixed;"

|- class="sortbottom"

! Name

Line 2,034 ⟶ 1,981:

| {{no}}

| {{yes}}

| {{N/A|N/A}}

| <!-- PCI passthrough -->

|-

Line 2,042 ⟶ 1,989:

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{n/a|Not needed}}

| {{yes}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E36784_01/html/E36803/zonelimit.html|title=beadm in Non-Global Zones – Creating and Administering Oracle Solaris 11.2 Boot Environments|date=11 November 2014|work=oracle.com}}</ref>

| {{yes}}

| {{no}}

| {{yes}}

| {{n/a|Not needed}}

| {{n/a|Not needed}}

|-

! [[DosBox]]

Line 2,173 ⟶ 2,120:

| {{no}}

| {{no}}

| {{dunno}}

| ?

| {{yes}}

| {{no}}

Line 2,225 ⟶ 2,172:

|

| {{no}}

| {{dunno}}

| ?

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

Line 2,368 ⟶ 2,315:

| {{yes}}

| Supported with [[VMGL]]<ref name="VMGL"/>

| ?{{dunno}} <!-- probably one of [1, line, branched]; delete this comment after adding information -->

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

Line 2,374 ⟶ 2,321:

| <!-- shared clipboard -->

| <!-- PCI passthrough -->{{yes}}

|-

!XCP-ng

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

|

|

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

|

|

|

|-

! [[XenServer]]

Line 2,403 ⟶ 2,337:

! [[z/VM]]

| {{yes}}

| {{N/A|Not applicable}}

| {{yes}} (zURM/HMC)

| {{yes}}

| {{N/A|Not applicable}}

|

|

| {{yes}} (2011)

| <!-- shared folders -->

| {{N/A|Not applicable}}

| {{N/A|Not applicable}}

|-

! z [[LPAR]]s

| {{yes}}

| {{N/A|Not applicable}}

| {{yes}} (HMC)

| {{yes}}

| {{N/A|Not applicable}}

|

|

| {{yes}} (2007)

| <!-- shared folders -->

| {{N/A|Not applicable}}

| {{N/A|Not applicable}}

|-

|- class="sortbottom"

! Name

Line 2,578 ⟶ 2,511:

| 4 IDE; 256 SCSI

| 64 TB

|-

! Xen<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=https://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_Project_Release_Features#Limits|title=Xen Project Release Features – Xen|website=wiki.xen.org|language=en|access-date=2018-08-14}}</ref><br>XCP-ng<br>Xen Server<ref name=":0"/>

| 4095 CPUs_x86<br>8 CPUs_ARM32<br>128 CPUs_ARM64

| 16 TB_x86<br>16 GB_ARM32<br>5 TB_ARM64

| No limit

| No limit

| 512&nbsp;PV_x86&nbsp;/&nbsp;128&nbsp;HVM_x86<br>8_ARM32<br>128_ARM64

| >1&nbsp;TB&nbsp;PV_x86&nbsp;/&nbsp;1&nbsp;TB&nbsp;HVM_x86<br>16 GB_ARM32<br>1 TB_ARM64

| ?

| ?

|-

! Name

Line 2,625 ⟶ 2,548:

<ref name="arstechnica">{{cite web |last = Protalinski |first = Emil |url = https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2009/08/microsoft-hyper-v-server-2008-r2-arrives-for-free |title = Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 arrives for free |publisher = Ars Technica |date = 2009-09-01 |access-date = 2013-10-08 }}</ref>

<ref name="bochs1">{{cite web |url = httphttps://bochs.sourceforge.net/doc/docbook/user/supported-platforms.html |title = 1.8. Supported Platforms |website = Bochs.sourceforge.net |access-date = 2015-02-22 }}</ref>

<ref name="bochs2">{{cite web |url = httphttps://bochs.sourceforge.net/doc/docbook/user/compiling.html |title = 3.4. Compiling Bochs |website = Bochs.sourceforge.net |access-date = 2015-02-22 }}</ref>

<ref name="bhyve1">{{cite web |url = https://wiki.freebsd.org/bhyve/Windows |title = Bhyve supports Windows |access-date = 2015-12-22}}</ref>

Line 2,703 ⟶ 2,626:

<ref name="rhel.kvm.arm">{{cite web |url = https://access.redhat.com/articles/2690601&context=etd |title = Development Preview of KVM Virtualization on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server for ARM |website = redhat.com |access-date = 2017-05-15 }}</ref>

<ref name="qemu-windows-host">{{ cite web | url = https://qemu.weilnetz.de/w64/ | title = QEMU Binaries for Windows (64 bit) | website = qemu.weilnetz.de | access-date = 2025-08-18 }}</ref>

|colwidth = 30em

}}