["VMware"] is a commercial PC emulator running on i386 compatible cpus. It allows you to run any x86 compatible OS in a kind of 'sandbox' - inside the ["VMware"] virtual machine you can run other operating systems like Windows or some other version of Linux.
Both Windows and a Linux versions are available.
["VMWare"] is not a true emulator, it doesn't emulate a CPU like Bochs does, it wraps CPU commands around... It does emulate various hardware devices like network-, graphic- and soundcards. Plex86 (see below) also uses this technique.
Bochs can run on any platform, while ["VMWare"] and Plex86 only run on x86 ["PCs"].
Current version: 4.5 Versions 3.2.0 build-2230, and 4.4, 4.5 work on Debian Sarge (other versions untested). It's available for both Windows and Linux, and costs about 400 US dollars. For more information, see http://www.vmware.com/
There are several open source projects that have a similar aim:
- Bochs
- Packages: bochs
- Accurate (but quite slow) PC emulation
- ["qemu"]
- Package: qemu
- Less accurate emulation that bochs, but faster. Uses dynamic binary translation to support different architectures.
- ["FAUmachine"]
- Plex86
- Xen
- Focuses on performance and virtual machine seperation
- Works by modifying the host operating system so that subsequent guest operating systems will run faster
- May one day support Microsoft Windows as a guest OS (After a blessing from Microsoft which may never come)
In Unstable and Testing, see http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/xen
Other emulators include:
Related links:
- Cooperative Linux
- Linux port that runs cooperatively alongside another operating system. Requires patch to the host OS.
- User Mode Linux
- Package: user-mode-linux
?Win4Lin
(Maybe this page ought to have a more general title - "EmulationAndVirtualisation" or similar? - see also ["VMWare"])