S o I was speaking with one of my classmates the other day about cyber security and the beautiful world of tech, when he started telling me about virtual machines. The name alone peaked my interest but when he told me that I can run operating systems such as Windows or Linux within my Mac, I was sold!
What are virtual machines, you may ask? Virtual machines are basically computer files that behave like actual computers. The software in a virtual machine doesn’t escape or tamper with that of the actual computer, therefore the reason why it runs in a separate window. Multiple virtual machines can run simultaneously at the same time on the same computer, too. Cool, right?
There are different types of virtual machines, such as system virtual machines which provide a substitute for a real machine. Another type is called process virtual machines, which run as a normal application inside a host operating system and supports a single process. It is created when the process is started and is destroyed when the process ends. Both system virtual machines date back as far as the 1960s and continue to be actively used and developed.
The cool thing about virtual machines is that once you download one such as VirtualBox, VMware, and QEMU. I downloaded VirtualBox and proceeded to also download Ubuntu. The experiences I had with it were so interesting.
It’s amazing the fact that you can run Windows, open an app like Safari on it, browse it, and it works just like if you were using your own regular operating system.
Studying and learning about virtual machines has literally made me mind blown and excited for what else I can learn about operating systems. I’m excited for what else there is to come!
