Virtualization Platform Products

Virtualization platforms are primarily used for creating and managing virtual machines (VMs). These platforms enable running multiple operating systems simultaneously on a single physical machine.

This post features virtualization platform products.

Type 1 Hypervisor Virtualization Platforms

List of Virtualization Apps:

Xen
VMware ESXi
Microsoft Hyper-V (when installed in “bare-metal” mode)
KVM

Xen

Xen is free and open-source software (FOSS) for a type 1 hypervisor.

VMWare ESXi

VMWare is the oldest of all existing tools.

Hyper-V

Hyper-V is develeped by Microsoft. Installed as default on Windows 11 OS.

Can be installed as bare-metal mode (type 1) or be installed on Windows servers hosted (type 2).

KVM

Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) is a free and open-source virtualization module in the Linux kernel that allows the kernel to function as a hypervisor.

Type 2 Hypervisor Products

Type 2 hypervisor products:

VMware Workstation
WMware Workstation Player
Virtual Box
Hyper-V
Parallels Desktop

VMware Workstation

VMware workstation.

VirtualBox

Virtual Box, also known as Oracle VM VirtualBox, is developed by Oracle.

Parallels Desktop

Parallels Desktop allows macOS users to run Windows applications alongside macOS without rebooting.