# Virtual Machine | | 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 provide a substitute for a real machine. They provide the functionality needed to execute entire operating systems. A hypervisor uses native execution to share and manage hardware, allowing for multiple environments that are isolated from one another yet exist on the same physical machine. Modern hypervisors use hardware-assisted virtualization, with virtualization-specific hardware features on the host CPUs providing assistance to hypervisors. Process virtual machines are designed to execute computer programs in a platform-independent environment. | |-|-| | | wikipedia:: [Virtual machine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_machine) | [[Virtualization]] ## [[VirtualBox]] ## [[Vagrant]] ## [[VMWare]] ## [[Microsoft Hyper-V]] ## [[Proxmox]] ## [[Citrix XenServer]]