KVM (for Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a full virtualization solution for Linux on x86 hardware containing virtualization extensions (Intel VT or AMD-V). It consists of a loadable kernel module, kvm.ko, that provides the core virtualization infrastructure and a processor specific module, kvm-intel.ko or kvm-amd.ko.  Using KVM, one can run multiple virtual machines running unmodified Linux or Windows images. Each virtual machine has private virtualized hardware: a network card, disk, graphics adapter, etc. 

kernel virtual machine

The Xen hypervisor is a layer of software running directly on computer hardware replacing the operating system thereby allowing the computer hardware to run multiple guest operating systems concurrently. It suppors x86, x86-64, Itanium, Power PC, and ARM processors allow the Xen hypervisor to run on a wide variety of computing devices. With Xen virtualization, a thin software layer known as the Xen hypervisor is inserted between the server's hardware and the operating system. This provides an abstraction layer that allows each physical server to run one or more "virtual servers", effectively decoupling the operating system and its applications from the underlying physical server.

The Xen hypervisor is a layer of software running directly on computer hardware replacing the operating system thereby allowing the computer hardware to run multiple guest operating systems concurrently. It suppors x86, x86-64, Itanium, Power PC, and ARM processors allow the Xen hypervisor to run on a wide variety of computing devices.

Xen - Open Source Virtualization

VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh, and Solaris hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems. So, for example, you can run Windows and Linux on your Mac. VirtualBox is a so-called hosted hypervisor. It requires an existing operating system to be installed. It can thus run alongside existing applications on that host. 

VirtualBox - Cross-Platform Virtualization Application

Open vSwitch is well suited to function as a virtual switch in VM environments. In addition to exposing standard control and visibility interfaces to the virtual networking layer, it was designed to support distribution across multiple physical servers. Open vSwitch supports multiple Linux-based virtualization technologies including Xen/XenServer, KVM, and VirtualBox.

Open vSwitch - Multilayer Virtual Switch

The Spice project aims to provide a complete open source solution for interaction with virtualized desktop devices. Its main focus is to provide high-quality remote access to QEMU virtual machine. Seeking to help break down the barriers to virtualization adoption by overcoming traditional desktop virtualization challenges, emphasizing user experience. For this purpose, Red Hat introduced the SPICE remote computing protocol that is used for Spice client-server communication.

Spice - Solution for interaction with Virtualized Desktop Devices

Libvirt is collection of software that provides a convenient way to manage virtual machines and other virtualization functionality, such as storage and network interface management. These software pieces include an API library, a daemon (libvirtd), and a command line utility (virsh). It provides a single way to manage multiple different virtualization providers/hypervisors like Xen, OpenVZ, VirualBox, Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor, VMware.

Libvirt - The virtualization API

Proxmox Virtual Environment is a powerful Open Source Server Virtualization Platform, based on KVM and OpenVZ. It gives you near-bare-metal performance and leading scalability for your  workloads. You can virtualize even the most demanding application workloads. It supports 32 bit and 64 bit Windows and Linux servers.

Proxmox - Virtualization Platform

OpenSwitch provides an abstraction of hardware devices of network switch platforms in a Linux OS environment. It uses standard open source software including an ONIE installer, and an unmodified Linux kernel based on Debian Jessie distribution. It provides an object-centric API for application development to implement custom applications using a well-defined object model, and set of programmatic APIs.
 
OPX Base software supports hardware virtualization (or simulation). Software simulation of basic hardware functionality is also provided (“white board”), and the higher layer software functionality can be developed and tested on generic PC/server hardware.

OpenSwitch provides an abstraction of hardware devices of network switch platforms in a Linux OS environment. It  uses standard open source software including an ONIE installer, and an unmodified Linux kernel based on Debian Jessie distribution. It provides an object-centric API for application development to implement custom applications using a well-defined object model, and set of programmatic APIs.

OpenSwitch - Linux-based network operating system (NOS) platform

Sheepdog is a distributed object storage system for volume and container services and manages the disks and nodes intelligently. Sheepdog features ease of use, simplicity of code and can scale out to thousands of nodes. The block level volume abstraction can be attached to QEMU virtual machines and Linux SCSI Target and supports advanced volume management features such as snapshot, cloning, and thin provisioning.
 
The object level container abstraction is designed to be Openstack Swift and Amazon S3 API compatible and can be used to store and retrieve any amount of data with a simple web services interface.

Sheepdog is a distributed object storage system for volume and container services and manages the disks and nodes intelligently. Sheepdog features ease of use, simplicity of code and can scale out to thousands of nodes. The block level volume abstraction can be attached to QEMU virtual machines and Linux SCSI Target and supports advanced volume management features such as snapshot, cloning, and thin provisioning.

Sheepdog - Distributed Storage System for QEMU

Flatpak is the next-generation technology for building and installing desktop applications. It has the power to revolutionize the Linux desktop ecosystem. Flatpak (formerly xdg-app) is a software utility for software deployment, package management, and application virtualization for Linux desktop computers. It provides a sandbox environment in which users can run applications in isolation from the rest of the system.
 
Unlike package managers, Flatpak can safely update applications on the fly. Its sandboxing technology prevents exploits and hinders malicious applications. It can simultaneously install multiple versions of the same application.
 
Flatpak helps to create one app bundle and distribute it to the entire Linux desktop market. Developers can develop and test their application in an environment that's identical to the one users have.

Flatpak is the next-generation technology for building and installing desktop applications. It has the power to revolutionize the Linux desktop ecosystem. Flatpak (formerly xdg-app) is a software utility for software deployment, package management, and application virtualization for Linux desktop computers. It provides a sandbox environment in which users can run applications in isolation from the rest of the system.

Flatpak - The future of Application Distribution

NX is an exciting new technology for remote display. It provides near local speed application responsiveness over high latency, low bandwidth links. The core libraries for NX are provided by NoMachine under the GPL. FreeNX is a GPL implementation of the NX Server and NX Client Components. 

Free NX -  Next Generation Remote Display 

QEMU is a generic and open source machine emulator and virtualizer. When used as a machine emulator, QEMU can run OSes and programs made for one machine (e.g. an ARM board) on a different machine (e.g. your own PC). By using dynamic translation, it achieves very good performance.
 
When used as a virtualizer, QEMU achieves near native performances by executing the guest code directly on the host CPU. QEMU supports virtualization when executing under the Xen hypervisor or using the KVM kernel module in Linux. When using KVM, QEMU can virtualize x86, server and embedded PowerPC, and S390 guests.

QEMU is a generic and open source machine emulator and virtualizer. When used as a machine emulator, QEMU can run OSes and programs made for one machine (e.g. an ARM board) on a different machine (e.g. your own PC). By using dynamic translation, it achieves very good performance.


QEMU - Machine Emulator and Virtualizer

Boxes is a simple GNOME application to view, access, and manage remote and virtual systems. It helps to find your local and remote virtual systems.
 
Boxes is targeted towards a typical desktop end-user who wants either a very safe and easy way to try out new operating systems or new (potentially unstable) versions of her/his favorite operating system(s), or needs to connect to a remote machine (home-office connection being a typical use-case). For this reason, Boxes does not provide many of the advanced options to tweak virtual machines provided by virt-manager. Instead, Boxes focuses on getting things working out of the box with very little input from user.

Boxes is a simple GNOME application to view, access, and manage remote and virtual systems. It helps to find your local and remote virtual systems.







Boxes - Virtualization made simple

XCP-ng is a virtualization platform based on Xen Source and Citrix® Hypervisor (formerly XenServer). XCP-ng stands for Xen Cloud Platform - New Generation and is a tribute to the old Open Source project XCP, which was abandoned when XenServer was open-sourced in 2013.

XCP-ng - A turnkey open source virtualization platform

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