QEMU

This book applies to version 2.5 and newer of QEMU.

QEMU is quick; it's a hypervisor that allows you to run virtual machines with complete operating systems that operate like any other program on your desktop. This can be useful for general purpose computing and black box testing. The software, whose website can be found here, is open-source and cross-platform. It targets a range of computer architectures beyond standard IBM PCs such as ARM and PowerPC. On Linux, it also has user-mode emulation where standard executables of one architecture can seamlessly run on another. This book will help you use the modern incarnation of QEMU for a wide variety of purposes.