Apple’s macOS is a great operating system. But even amazing operating systems have shortcomings, one of them being not being able to execute some important applications. In the case of macOS, there are software like Microsoft Access, Adobe Photoshop and other Windows based applications that demand Microsoft Windows for operation. However, Microsoft and Apple despite being competitors, have always tried to fill the gaps in terms of supporting each other’s applications. Virtualization has helped them achieve this task allowing Mac devices to run Windows applications and vice versa.
Two of the main brains behind the Ravello hypervisor have now released a Native Mac OSX virtualization tool. Say hello to Veertu. It is light (20MB), supports Windows and Linux Operating Systems, has extensive useability features such as copy/paste between guest and VM, full-screen, and shared folders. Hypervisor provides C APIs so you can interact with virtualization technologies in user-space, without writing kernel extensions (KEXTs). As a result, the apps you create using this framework are suitable for distribution on the Mac App Store.
Hence, if you are a Mac user who also wants to run Windows operating system with macOS, this article will benefit you.
Oct 28, 2019 Desktop virtualization is useful when you want to use a piece of software compatible with one operating system, such as Windows, but you have another operating system, such as Linux or Mac OS, on your machine. With a hypervisor, you can set up a Windows virtual machine to run the software without having to change operating systems. VMware Fusion: Powerfully Simple Virtual Machines for Mac. VMware Fusion Pro and VMware Fusion Player Desktop Hypervisors give Mac users the power to run Windows on Mac along with hundreds of other operating systems, containers or Kubernetes clusters, side by side with Mac applications, without rebooting. Fusion products are simple enough for home users and powerful enough for IT. Best Virtualization Software for Mac. There are some limited options to choose a virtualization software for Mac. However, here are some of the best programs to virtualize other operating systems on a Macintosh. Oracle VM Virtual Box Top Virtualization Software for Mac Oracle VM VirtualBox is a free software to run Windows on Mac.
Free Virtualization Software For macOS:
In this article, we’ve discussed about the best and free virtualization software for Mac devices. Have a look at them!
Boot Camp
When talking about running another operating system on Mac, we cannot ignore Boot Camp, Apple’s own utility to run Windows on Mac computers. Even Though, Boot Camp is not a virtualization software, there’s no better software you can lean on when it comes to playing Windows-based games on Mac PC.
The software comes preloaded on Mac and permits Mac users to use both Windows and macOS on the same device. Additionally, as the operating system directly executed from the hard drive, it also renders better user experience compared to virtualization software.
The only disadvantage other than only being able to run Windows is that you need to restart the computer every time you want to switch to the other operating system. Therefore, like virtualization software, you can’t use both operating systems parallelly.
Note: – Many Mac users use both Boot Camp and a virtualization software for quick access and better performance. You can do that too if you’ve got enough resources on your Mac device.
QEMU
QEMU or Quick EMUlator is another great software that is open source and supports Linux, Windows and macOS. What it does is, it emulates (imitates) software and hardware types and controls administrative privileges in order to run the guest operating system.
The source code is directly injected into the host machine, which helps QEMU to offer near-native performance. QEMU is perfect if you want a pint-sized virtual machine that can be stored in a compact flash drive. However, you need some patience to install QEMU. Here’s how you can install QEMU on your Mac: –
- Download and install Homebrew. Visit the official website https://brew.sh/
- Open terminal on Mac
- Type “$ brew install qemu” in the terminal
Further, get an image file of the operating system you want to use on Mac (you can find it online) and run it until you’re bored!
See Also: 5 Best Photo Management Apps For Mac In 2018
VMWare
If you want things to be simple, use VMWare. The free version of VMWare allows its users to run all major operating systems on your Mac machine. VMWare is pretty old and popular in the game and hence over time evolved a lot according to user requirements. It offers three versions: The Free VMWare Workstation Player, VMWare Fusion ($79.99) and VMWare Workstation ($249.99).
The paid versions are generally used by professionals. But if you’re a home user, VMWare Free can cater your needs. Popular operating systems such as Linux and Windows are efficiently supported by VMWare.
The software is user-friendly and installs conveniently unlike QEMU. You can seamlessly switch the operating systems and can be called as one of the most dependable options available out there.
VirtualBox
VirtualBox is a skillful virtualization application that is entirely free! Yes, the source code of the software is owned by Oracle. VirtualBox is a powerful software that offers smooth switching capabilities on macOS. The software can be quickly installed and supports all major operating systems.
VirtualBox comes together with software packages that are specially created to benefit users to transfer files between the host and the guest operating systems. The program offers laudable hardware support, multi-screen resolution, 3D virtualization and many other features. Basically, VirtualBox deserves a thumbs up when it comes to the number of features for no money at all. Click here to download VirtualBox.
These are the best free Mac software that are stable and can be used to deploy various operating systems on your Mac. Use them and share your experience in the comments section below. Also, do not hesitate to ask any questions related to installation or usage.
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What is a bare-metal hypervisor?
The Hypervisor is a software layer that allows the user to control and monitor Virtual machines. It allows users to run multiple types of guest operating systems on a single host machine. For example, we can run Windows 10, Ubuntu, Redhat, and more OS on a single Linux /Windows/macOS host machine to test or run different software. You can also call it Virtualization software that we used in our day to day life such as VirtualBox and VMware Workstation.
Now, what is the difference between VirtualBox kind of software and bare-metal hypervisor?
So, both are a kind of hypervisor, or shall I say Virtualization software technology, however, the way they work is different. The open-source VirtualBox, VMware Player, and other such kinds of Virtualization software fall under Type 2 Hypervisor; while bare-metal virtualization software is Type 1 hypervisors.
Actually, the Hypervisor technique is divided into two categories: Type 1 and Type 2 virtualization technology.
Type1 hypervisors:
Hypervisor or Virtualization software that falls under the Type 1 has direct contact with the physical hardware. Direct handling of the hardware increased the efficiency and performance of the guest operating system running over it. Such kinds of Virtualization operating systems also called Bare-metal Hypervisor. Mostly they are used in Datacenters or in a cloud environment or by enterprises.
Type 1 hypervisor examples: Microsoft Hyper V, Oracle VM Server for x86, VMware ESXi, Oracle VM Server for SPARC, open-source hypervisor distros like Xen project are some examples of bare metal server Virtualization…
Type2 hypervisors:
Type2 Hypervisors are commonly used software for creating and running virtual machines on the top of OS such as Windows, Linux, or macOS.
Type 2 hypervisor examples: The perfect examples of Type2 are VirtualBox, Qemu, VMware Workstation Player, and Parallel. You can call them the best hypervisors for home-usage.
Running virtual guest operating systems over the host operating not only consumes lots of resources but also needs host permission to reach the hardware; which adds an extra layer of complexity, hence decreases the performance as compared to Type1 virtualization.
Here in this article we only talk about the free and open-source Type1 Virtualization software. However, if you have time you can dwell on this article: Best Free Virtualbox Alternative for Linux
Before moving further, you should know more about the types of virtualization technology. There are four types of virtualization methods that are commonly used in today’s world.
- FV: Full Virtualization
- PV: Para Virtualization
- OSV: Operating system virtualization.
- HAV Hardware-Assisted Virtualization.
You can test below the bare-metal hypervisor on a laptop or your PC/server to experience the power of Virtualization.
Best Free & open-source bare-metal hypervisor (foss)
Xen Project
Xen is an open-source software platform or Linux hypervisor distro maintained by the global community of developers It supports virtualization for x86, x86_64, IA64, ARM, and other CPU architectures. The Xen hypervisor is an enterprise-class alternative to proprietary virtualization platforms and hypervisors for x86 and IA64 platforms. Besides the open-source, it also available in the commercial version from Citrix.
Xen hypervisor is a kernel-based virtual machine platform that can virtualize a wide range of guest operating systems such as Windows, Linux, BSD, and its other versions. It used by so many commercial platforms for server virtualization, Cloud platforms (Amazon, Google, Cisco, and more) Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), security applications, and more… Supports multiple Cloud platforms: CloudStack, OpenStack.
Download:Xen Project
XenServer Open source
XenServer hypervisor runs an open-source type-1 or bare-metal hypervisor available in three versions: community, standard, and enterprise. However, the ISO file is the same for all versions. The free version offers basic features that include hypervisor including capabilities like VM migration, Health check, snapshot, and more. Whereas the standard one is meant for SMBs along with Citrix support. The last Enterprise one suitable for large organization offers supports and live patching and Windows update support. Being a commercial product, it is one of the best free hypervisors.
Enable Hypervisor Windows 10
Download Xen Server (link)
Oracle VM Server for x86
Oracle VM Server for x86 is a free Type1 virtualization platform that uses open-source Xen hypervisor technology. It is an enterprise-class hypervisor that includes an integrated Web-based management console. One can download it from the official website page Oracle Software Delivery Cloud. Since being a commercial featured product, one needs to create an account on the Oracle website then only he can get the ISO file of this bare-metal hypervisor.
Linux KVM
Linux KVM( Kernal Based VirtualMachine) is another Type -1 hypervisor that is a base for different Linux hypervisor distros. Furthermore, it can convert different operating systems such as Redhat, OpenSuse, Centos, and Ubuntu into a full virtualization platform.KVM is acquired by the RedHat and supports all most all Linux, BSD, Solaris, and Windows operating systems as a guest. The administrator can control and manage the KVM installed virtual server either by command line or via a Graphical user interface (GU) provided by VirtManager. It supports x86 hardware containing virtualization extensions (Intel VT or AMD-V). By default, it is a command-line tool.
Proxmox- Open-Source Virtualization Platform
Proxmox VE is a complete open-source virtualization management platform that closely integrates two virtualization technologies: KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) hypervisor and Linux container (LXC) to provide enterprise-class virtualization.
Proxmox VE also supports Paravirtualization (virtIO drivers for network, Grafik, hard disks); also HAV is possible with Proxmox VE.
Proxmox VE is based on Debian GNU/Linux and uses a customized Linux Kernel. The current stable 5.x release uses the latest Ubuntu 18.04 based kernel, which will be regularly updated. It supports full virtualization (with KVM) and container-based virtualization with LXC.
The Proxmox Open-Source Virtualization Platform has a monolithic system that provides three major functionalities of computing, network, and storage in a single package. It offers both command line and graphical user interface to control, deploy, destroy, monitor, and manage containers and virtual machines. Scalable and easy to use option for data centers, one must try it once.
DownloadProxmox (Link)
Free Hypervisor For Mac Os X
Openvz
It is another enterprise approach hypervisor with a bit different approach because it is an open-source container-based virtualization platform for Linux. If you want to create your own Virtual Private server then try out the OpenVZ.
Mac Os Catalina
So, what exactly is it, the OpenVZ is a free and open-source offered by Virtuozzo, now. It comes with an ability to create multiple virtual machines in an isolated Linux container. This means the admin can treat each container as a standalone server. All the containers can reboot independently on a single physical server just like we do in VES and VPS environments provided by different cloud hosting companies. OpenVZ is also a Linux hypervisor distro available for bare metal installation. OpenVZ provides a web interface.
Download OpenVZ ISO (Link)
Extra Information: Non- Bare Metal virtualization options…
oVirt
oVirt is an open-source distributed virtualization solution developed for Linux operating systems such as RedHat Enterprise, CentOS, Scientific Linux, Fedora 28, and also available as oVirt Node which is CentOS based. It is a Linux KVM hypervisor designed for enterprise infrastructure.
oVirt built upon several other community projects, including libvirt, Gluster, PatternFly, and Ansible.
Download oVirt (Link)
SmartOS
SmartOS is a free and open-source SVR4 hypervisor based on the UNIX operating system that combines OpenSolaris technology with Linux’s KVM virtualization. It employs NetBSD pkgsrc package management.
Download SmartOS (Link)
Note: VMware ESXi is not a FOSS project but free to download and use. It is here just for knowledge…
VMware ESXI
If you have the perception that all VMWare products are paid then you didn’t check thoroughly. Because there are some products those free and VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) is one of them.
VMware free ESXi is another best free hypervisor for creating a virtual environment to install different operating systems. After the installation, the user can connect the virtualized Vmware server using the Vsphere client. That gives an easy to use a graphical user interface to create, deploy, destroy unlimited VMs. Being a part of a commercial entity, it supports a wide range of server hardware and well optimized to run virtual servers for production usage. The user needs to enter the free license key to use the Vmware Type1 hypervisor otherwise it will expire after 60 days.
Download Vmware free ESXi (Link)
Free Hyper-V server 2019 Standalone
The standalone version of the Hyper-V is a free product from Microsoft and available to download free of cost. However, there are some disadvantages of the standalone version, it doesn’t come with GUI, yes it is Microsoft product without a graphical user interface plus less drive support, roles, and hard to manage. Still, if you want to try the standalone product you are free to go. However, I recommend the Windows server rather just alone hyper.
Oracle VirtualBox
Those are familiar with virtualization they would already know about the VirtualBox. It is the best Type-2 Virtual machine creator platform available for almost all mainstream operating systems such as Windows, macOS, FreeBSD, and macOS. The interface is super easy to understand and use. Even a new user can easily install it and start creating virtual machines in a few minutes.
So, these are few free and best open-source bare-metal hypervisor options, if you are using any of them or some different, let us know your experience.
Other Useful Resources: