One often hears about virtual machines. What are they, and why would one need one?
The following is by my understanding.
A virtual machine acts like a computer inside another computer. It has its own operating system, which can be different from that of the computer it’s running on. For instance, on a virtual machine, one can run Linux on a Windows PC. Or, one can run Windows XP on a Windows 11 PC.
The reason for the versatility of virtual machines is that one first loads the software to run virtual machines in general. In many cases, said software is open source. Then, once said software is loaded, one can pick from a list the operating system one wants, and even how much ram, CPU power, and disk space for it. One has to download an image of the operating system desired, but in my understanding many are available, including proprietary, older ones such as Windows XP.
I’ve created virtual machines to run Linux on a Windows PC, but not the other way around – yet. However, I do have an old scanner compatible with Windows XP. It seems possible I could install virtual machine software on this Linux PC, then download an XP iso file and install XP to a virtual machine. I haven’t gotten around to it yet, but it’s on the list. Otherwise, the scanner will need to be recycled.
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