What is a virtual machine? A Virtual Machine (VM) is a compute resource that uses software instead of a physical computer to run programs and deploy apps. One or more virtual “guest” machines run on a physical “host” machine. Nov 3, 2025 · Virtualization refers to virtual versions of real-world computer systems, such as computer hardware, storage, and networks, and virtual machines (VM) are part of that virtualization process. It is essentially a software program that acts like a separate computer system. It runs on a physical computer (the host) and behaves like a real computer with its own operating system, memory, storage ... Oracle today released a significant new version of Oracle VirtualBox, its high performance, cross-platform virtualization software. See the Changelog for details. In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is the virtualization or emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures and provide the functionality of a physical computer. Their implementations may involve specialized hardware, software, or a combination of the two. Virtual machines differ and are organized by their function, shown here: System virtual machines ...
