48 lines
3.6 KiB
XML
48 lines
3.6 KiB
XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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<!DOCTYPE topic
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PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN" "topic.dtd">
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<topic xml:lang="en-us" id="virtintro">
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<title>Some Terminology</title>
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<body>
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<p>When dealing with virtualization, and also for understanding the following
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chapters of this documentation, it helps to acquaint yourself with some important terminology,
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especially the following terms: </p>
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<ul>
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<li>
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<p><b outputclass="bold">Host operating system (host OS).</b> This is the OS of the physical
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computer on which <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> was installed. There are versions of
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<ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Oracle Solaris hosts.
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See <xref href="hostossupport.dita#hostossupport"/>. </p>
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<p>Most of the time, this user guide discusses all <ph
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conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> versions together. There may be platform-specific
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differences which we will point out where appropriate. </p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<p><b outputclass="bold">Guest operating system (guest OS).</b> This is the OS that is running inside the virtual machine. Theoretically, <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> can run any x86 OS such as DOS, Windows, OS/2, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD on an x86 host. But to achieve near-native performance of the guest code on your machine, we had to go through a lot of optimizations that are specific to certain OSs. So while your favorite OS <i>may</i> run as a guest, we officially support and optimize for a select few, which include the most common OSs. </p>
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<p>See <xref href="guest-os.dita"/>.</p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<p><b outputclass="bold">Virtual machine (VM).</b> This is the special environment that <ph
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conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> creates for your guest OS while it is running. In other
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words, you run your guest OS <i>in</i> a VM. Normally, a VM is shown as a window on your computer's desktop.
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Depending on which of the various frontends of <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> you use,
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the VM might be shown in full screen mode or remotely on another computer. </p>
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<p>Internally, <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> treats a VM as a set of
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parameters that specify its behavior. Some parameters describe hardware settings, such as the amount of memory
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and number of CPUs assigned. Other parameters describe the state information, such as whether the VM is
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running or saved. </p>
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<p>You can view these VM settings in <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/vbox-mgr"/>, in the <b
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outputclass="bold">Settings</b> window, and by running the <userinput>VBoxManage</userinput> command. See
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<xref href="vboxmanage.dita#vboxmanage"/>. </p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<p><b outputclass="bold">Guest Additions.</b> This refers to special software packages which are
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shipped with <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> but designed to be installed <i>inside</i>
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a VM to improve performance of the guest OS and to add extra features. See <xref
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href="guestadditions.dita#guestadditions"/>. </p>
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</li>
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</ul>
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</body>
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</topic>
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