Ask HN: Type 1 Hypervisor for use on a laptop?

5 pointsjaitaiwan3mo ago5 comments

Hey folks,

I'm looking for a type 1 hypervisor that's installable on a laptop that one can use to run a main guest OS as the one connected to the display, keyboard etc and the other guests are manageable via an app within that guest or through some sort of kvmish shortcuts.

I am aware of QubesOS but I think it might have more features than what I'm looking for.

5 comments

johng3mo ago

In for the sub.. wondering if Proxmox might do what you want? I've used a Proxmox server as my primary desktop through hardware passthrough. Never tried it on a Laptop though.

aborsy3mo ago

I had this question a while ago. Type I hypervisors are not designed to run on laptops. Some features like battery optimization, suspension, WiFi , Bluetooth etc may not work well. And more importantly, the consoles in web interfaces seem to be more for emergency access than everyday use; the access is primarily meant to be over ssh or rdp.

QubesOS is an exception. The next best option is a type II hypervisor like Qemu/kvm on Linux, pretending that it’s type I.

speedgoose3mo ago

It’s probably not what you are looking for, but Windows with HyperV does that I think. It’s not enabled by default but enabling WSL 2 makes windows run as a VM too. That’s why enabling WSL 2 has a performance hit for windows gaming on older machines.

jaitaiwanOP3mo ago

Finding out about this is actually what inspired me to go down this investigation path.

ATechGuy3mo ago

Why not use KVM?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse