VMware Player is a commercial virtualisation product that lets you run multiple operating systems on your computer. Like Qemu, VirtualBox is also open source software. It supports numerous operating systems apart from Linux and Windows, including the likes of BSD, Solaris and even DOS or Windows 3.x. In fact, VirtualBox is so neatly laid out and simple in operation that it should be your first pick if you aren’t already familiar with virtualisation. Even though Oracle primarily projects it as a product for enterprise use, VirtualBox can and does suffice for general computing enthusiasts who would like to try their hands at virtualisation. Oracle VM VirtualBox, or just VirtualBox as it is popularly called, is full-blown virtualisation software typically meant for the x86 architecture. And the best part is that Qemu is open source software. It lets you run Windows programs on your Linux machine, as well as execute guest code directly on host devices. Qemu can be used both as a machine emulator and as virtualisation software.

Before comparing these, let’s first look at each of them in isolation.

However, in this article, we will focus on four popular options - Qemu, VirtualBox, VMware Player and Parallels Workstation. And talking about virtualisation products for Linux devices, the options are plenty.

Virtualbox vs vmware open source