Virtualization and Emulation on MacOS

I have been using Parallels for a couple of years now, primarily for running Windows virtual machines (VMs), but occasionally Linux VMs too. I mostly use it for playing games, testing, and the occasional Windows-only application. There are some other long-standing options such as VirtualBox, QEMU, and VMWare. I am intentionally ignoring anything that also runs containers, such as Docker, as that’s a different use case, and a whole other gamut of options.

Recent changes in macOS suddenly bought a plethora new options and after trying VirtualBuddy already and reading a post from the ever insightful Eclectic Light Company, I decided to try them all out!