Guestoperatsioonisüsteem

Guestoperatsioonisüsteem refers to an operating system that runs within a virtual machine, hosted on top of a hypervisor or a host operating system. It is often referred to as a guest OS, in contrast to the host operating system or the hypervisor itself. The guest OS perceives the virtualized hardware provided by the hypervisor as its own physical hardware, allowing it to function independently.

Virtualization technology enables multiple guest operating systems to run concurrently on a single physical machine. Each guest OS is isolated from the others and from the host, providing a secure and efficient way to manage resources. This is commonly used for running different operating systems on one computer, testing software in isolated environments, or deploying applications on dedicated virtual servers.

Common examples of guest operating systems include various versions of Windows, Linux distributions, and macOS, all running on hypervisors like VMware, VirtualBox, or Hyper-V. The performance of a guest OS can be influenced by the resources allocated to its virtual machine, such as CPU, RAM, and storage, as well as the efficiency of the underlying hypervisor. Guest additions or tools are often installed within the guest OS to improve performance and enable better integration with the host environment, such as seamless mouse movement, shared clipboards, and optimized graphics.