If your Mac uses an Apple Silicon (M1 or M2) chip, you can virtualize a copy of macOS that is compiled for ARM64 (aarch64) unmodified. Virtualization involves simulating part of the computer’s hardware. So what is the difference these two terms? Notice that two terms are tossed around when we discuss UTM - virtualization and emulation. UTM only runs on macOS (11.0 or later) Virtualization vs Emulation You can also use emulation to run x86/圆4 OSes on Apple Silicon as well as ARM64 OSes on Intel, albeit with slower performances than using virtualization. And on Intel Macs, x86/圆4 operating system can also be virtualized. On Apple Silicon Macs, UTM uses Apple’s Hypervisor virtualization framework to run ARM64-based operating systems. The best way to think of UTM is that it is a GUI version of QEMU, without needing you to have the knowledge to grapple with the plethora of command line options and flags of QEMU. It emulates the machine’s processor through dynamic binary translation and provides a set of different hardware and device models for the machine, enabling it to run a variety of guest operating systems. Basically, UTM allows you to run Windows, Linux, and more on your Mac, iPhone, and iPad. UTM (based on QEMU) is a full featured system emulator and virtual machine host for iOS and macOS. And best of all, you can even run multiple instances of macOS! What is UTM? Instead, for this article, I want to introduce you to a free way to run multiple virtual machines on your Apple Silicon Macs.

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