The table below compares basic information about virtual machine (VM) packages. Note that these are all virtual machines in the 'hypervisor' or 'hardware emulator' sense. None of them are VMs in the Application Virtualization sense as the Java Virtual Machine or Parrot virtual machine. For those, see Comparison of Application Virtual Machines.
Linux and flexibility go hand in hand, and the options for virtualization are no different. But recently, a change in the Linux virtualization landscape has appeared with the introduction of the Kernel virtual Machine, or KVM. KVM is the first virtualization solution to be part of the mainline Linux kernel (V2.6.20). KVM supports the virtualization of Linux guest operating systems -- even Windows with hardware that is virtualization-aware. Learn about the architecture of the Linux KVM as well as why its tight integration with the kernel may change the way you use Linux.