What Are the Different Types of Virtual Machine Files?

Virtual machine (Virtual Machine) refers to a complete computer system with complete hardware system functions and running in a completely isolated environment simulated by software. What can be done in a physical computer can be done in a virtual machine. When you create a virtual machine in a computer, you need to use some of the hard disk and memory capacity of the physical machine as the hard disk and memory capacity of the virtual machine. Each virtual machine has independent CMOS, hard disk, and operating system, and can operate the virtual machine like a physical machine. ^[1]

Virtual machine technology is a kind of virtualization technology. The so-called virtualization technology is to transform things from one form to another. The most commonly used virtualization technologies are

Virtual machine resources involve multiple aspects:

1.Demonstration environment, you can install a variety of presentation environment, easy to make various examples ^[12]

VMware Workstation VMware Workstation

VMware is an independent software company of EMC. In January 1998, Professor Mendel Rosenblum of Stanford University led his students Edouard Bugnion and Scott Devine and years of research on virtual machine technology. Mainframe-level virtual technology computer, and released its first product in 1999: VMware Workstation, a virtual machine based on the host model. Later in 2001, VMware GSX Server and VMware ESX Server were launched for the server market. Today, VMware is the leader in the virtual machine market. The balloon driver, shadow page table, and virtual driver that were first proposed and adopted by VMware have been adopted by other virtual machines. Machines such as Xen. ^[13]

Using VMware, you can run various Linux distributions, Dos, Windows versions, Unix, etc., and even install multiple Linux distributions and multiple Windows versions on the same computer. ^[2]

Advantages: ^[2]

1. Can run multiple operating systems on the same PC at the same time, each OS has its own independent virtual machine, just like an independent PC on the network.

2. Run two VMs on Windows NT / 2000 at the same time, you can talk to each other, or you can talk to virtual machines in full screen mode, but at this time another virtual machine is running in the background.

4. Install another distribution of the same operating system on the VM without repartitioning the hard disk.

5. Share files, applications, and network resources among virtual machines.

6. Can run applications in C / S mode, or use all the resources of another virtual machine on the same computer. ^[2]

Parallels Desktop Virtual Machines Parallels Desktop

Parallels Desktop is a virtual machine solution for the Mac OS platform. Access many applications on both Windows and Mac systems at the same time on a single Mac computer without restarting. The biggest difference from VMware is that Parallels Desktop does not need to be restarted, and both systems run simultaneously. Files can be transferred between the two systems, and materials can be shared. ^[14]

Parallels Desktop

Coherence mode supports not displaying Windows but still using its applications, or keeping the familiar Windows background and start menu on the Mac. Both ways of running Windows and Mac applications have no impact on performance. ^[14]

Multiple virtual machine support: Windows, Linux, Chrome OS, Mac OS, Android OS, etc. ^[14]

Advantages: ^[14]

Seamless integration. Siri® and Cortana are also available on Mac devices, and it also supports iCloud, Dropbox, and Google DriveTM.

Good performance. For example, pausing virtual machines and restarting the operating system is 3 times faster than VMware Fusion 8.5. It can optimize virtual disks in real time and only take up space when it is actually needed. ^[14]

Develop artifacts. Free support for common development tools like Docker, Jenkins and Chef. ^[14]

Virtual PC Virtual PC

Virtual PC was acquired by Microsoft and was not originally developed by Microsoft. Virtual PC allows you to run multiple PC operating systems on one workstation at the same time. When you move to a new OS, it can provide a secure environment for you to run traditional applications to maintain compatibility. It can save reconfiguration time, making Your support, development, and training can be more effective. ^[15]

Virtual PC uses the PowerPC processor on the Mac OS X version, and its emulator "uses" the Intel Pentium 4 processor and the 440BX series motherboard; on the Windows version, the computer's own processor is used. An analog computer uses a standard SVGA VESA graphics card and is compatible with the S3 Trio 64 PCI 8 MByte Video RAM version. The motherboard uses the BIOS of the American Megatrends (AMI). Also has a "built-in" Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 PnP sound card (on Vista or when running a simulated Vista environment, use the Vista's own sound system, because Vista does not support Creative Labs Sound Blaster) and Ethernet card of DEC 21041 or DEC 21140 . ^[15]

Virtual PC can simulate multiple computers on your computer at the same time. A virtual computer can be used like a real computer. It can be configured with bios, partition its hard disk, format it, and install DOS on the operating system. , Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, UNIX, LINUX, etc. You can run Linux in Windows XP. ^[16]

Advantages: ^[16]

Good compatibility. Compatibility with XP and other Microsoft systems is best.

Small memory and easy to use.

Good support for the network. After installing the system, configure the ip to get online.

Oracle VM VirtualBox Oracle VM VirtualBox

Oracle VM VirtualBox is software produced by Sun Microsystems (Sun Microsystems was acquired by Oracle in 2010) and was originally developed by German innotek. On February 12, 2008, Sun Microsystems announced that it would acquire German Innotek software company by purchasing stocks. The new version is no longer called Innotek VirtualBox, but changed to Sun xVM VirtualBox. On January 21, 2010, the European Union finally agreed to Oracle's acquisition of Sun, and VirtualBox was renamed Oracle VM VirtualBox again. VirtualBox is open source software. ^[17]

VirtualBox 3.2.0 supports operating systems including: Debian, Fedora, Linux, Mac OS (Intel), Mandriva, OpenSolaris, PCLiunxOS, Red Hat, SUSE Linux, Solaris 10, Ubuntu, Windows, Xandros, openSUSE, etc. ^[17]

Oracle VM VirtualBox supports client operating systems including all versions of Windows from 3.1 to Vista, Linux 2.2, 2.4, and 2.6 kernels, Solaris x86, OS / 2, OpenBSD, Netware, FreeBSD, and DOS. In January 2007, InnoTek released VirtualBox under the GNU General Public License (GPL), and provided binary and open source versions of the code. The latest version is VirtualBox 4.3.12-93733. ^[17]

Advantages: ^[17]

1. It is small and exquisite, it is easy to download the installation files, and the hard disk space occupied by the installation is small.

2. The type of operating system it supports is updated faster than VMware WorkStation.

3. It's free.

VMLite Virtual Machine VMLite

VMLite is the world's first high-speed virtual machine designed by the Chinese. The VMLite release has attracted tens of thousands of virtual machine players worldwide to download and use VMLite software in just a few weeks. ^[18]

VMLite is a virtual machine software. The accompanying VMLite XP mode is almost the same as the Windows XP mode introduced by Microsoft, but it does not require your CPU to support virtualization to run. VMLite allows you to create Windows XP virtual machines directly using the Windows XP mode installation files downloaded from the Microsoft website. After the VMLite XP mode is configured, shortcuts to the software installed in the virtual machine will also appear in the Windows 7 Start menu; programs running in the virtual machine can be seamlessly displayed on the Windows 7 desktop, which looks like Runs the same in this machine. ^[18]

So far, VMLite has six major products including VMLite XP Mode, VMLite Workstation, MyOldPCs, VMLite VirtualApps Studio, VMLite VirtualApps Player, and VBoot, which are very comprehensive. ^[18]

Advantages: ^[18]

1) VMLite is the fastest running virtual machine in the world

2) VMLite does not have any requirements for hardware installation, that is, it does not have any requirements for your computer configuration, for example, it does not need to be compatible with VT-x or AMD-V

3) VMLite does not run remote programs so it is very fast

4) VMLite file sharing is fast

5) VMLite has a large disk capacity: 2TB

6) VMLite supports 32-bit and 64-bit systems

7) VMLite supports multiple virtual CPUs running simultaneously

8) VMLite supports 3D animation effects. It has a 32-bit high-definition graphics card. You can enjoy google earth in high definition and let players play the most fashionable online games with high image quality requirements ^.