Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

QEMU VS Boxes

Compare QEMU VS Boxes and see what are their differences

QEMU logo QEMU

QEMU (short for "Quick EMUlator") is a free and open-source hosted hypervisor that...

Boxes logo Boxes

GNOME Boxes is an application of the GNOME Desktop Environment, used to access remote or virtual systems.
  • QEMU Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-01-14
  • Boxes Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-22

QEMU features and specs

  • Open Source
    QEMU is completely open-source, meaning it is free to use and its source code is available for modification and improvement by the community.
  • Platform Support
    QEMU supports a wide range of architectures and platforms, allowing users to emulate systems from x86 to ARM and beyond.
  • Performance
    When used with KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine), QEMU offers near-native performance for virtual machines on x86 hardware.
  • Flexibility
    QEMU can be used for a variety of tasks, such as running virtual machines, debugging, or even virtualization for embedded systems.
  • Integration
    QEMU integrates well with other systems and tools, making it a versatile component in large, complex setups (e.g., OpenStack).

Possible disadvantages of QEMU

  • Complexity
    The vast array of features and configuration options can make QEMU overwhelming and difficult to set up for beginners.
  • Performance Overhead
    Without the use of KVM or other hardware acceleration, QEMU's performance can be significantly slower compared to other hypervisors.
  • Limited GUI
    QEMU primarily operates via command-line interface, which might not be user-friendly for individuals who prefer graphical user interfaces.
  • Sparse Documentation
    While improving, some parts of QEMU's documentation remain sparse or difficult to understand, which can pose challenges during advanced configurations or troubleshooting.
  • Resource Intensive
    Running multiple instances of QEMU can be resource-intensive on the host system, which may affect overall performance.

Boxes features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Boxes offers a simple and intuitive interface, making it easy for users to create and manage virtual machines without a steep learning curve.
  • Integration with GNOME
    As a part of the GNOME project, Boxes integrates well with the GNOME desktop environment, ensuring a seamless experience for users of this desktop.
  • Effortless Setup
    Setting up new virtual machines or connecting to remote desktops is streamlined, requiring minimal user input to get started.
  • Automatic Resource Allocation
    Boxes automatically allocates resources like CPU and memory based on the host system capabilities, simplifying management for users.
  • Remote Desktop Support
    In addition to managing local virtual machines, Boxes can connect to remote machines, providing flexibility in accessing different environments.

Possible disadvantages of Boxes

  • Limited Advanced Features
    Boxes lacks some of the advanced features found in other virtualization tools, making it less suitable for power users who need extensive configuration options.
  • Performance Overhead
    As with many virtualization solutions, there is some performance overhead when running virtual machines, which might affect the host system’s performance.
  • Dependency on GNOME
    Since Boxes is designed for GNOME, its integration with other desktop environments might not be as smooth, potentially causing usability issues.
  • Limited Guest OS Compatibility
    Some users report that Boxes can have compatibility issues with certain guest operating systems, limiting its effectiveness in some scenarios.
  • No Snapshot Support
    Boxes currently does not support taking snapshots of virtual machines, which is a drawback for users who require rollback capabilities for testing configurations.

QEMU videos

What is QEMU?

More videos:

  • Review - Creating Virtual Machines in QEMU | Virt-manager | KVM
  • Review - Community Code Review & QEMU

Boxes videos

21 NEVER BEFORE OPENED SUBSCRIPTION BOXES - 2020 Subscription Box Unboxing and Review

More videos:

  • Review - Comparing & Reviewing 11 Popular Subscription Boxes | 2020 Subscription Box Unboxing with Michel
  • Review - Comparing & Reviewing 4 Popular Meal Kit Boxes!

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to QEMU and Boxes)
Cloud Computing
85 85%
15% 15
Virtualization
86 86%
14% 14
Virtual Machine Management
Group Chat & Notifications

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare QEMU and Boxes

QEMU Reviews

15 Lutris Alternatives
QEMU is a piece of open-source software for simulating hardware. It lets users of one operating system (OS) use apps made for another. The virtualization software could then be put on these host operating systems. It enables computers with one OS to use software made for a different OS. With the help of dynamic translation, users can do well in what they do. This software is...
Best Alternatives of VirtualBox for Windows
Short for Quick Emulator, QEMU is another free and open source virtualization solution for a variety of operating systems. While it is immensely powerful, it is also one of the least user friendly out there. QEMU offers a host of advanced capabilities and features that others of the same genre fall short of, including a wide variety of architectures in place of the...
10 Best VMware Alternatives and Similar Software
QEMU also allows users to run applications from other computers from within their operating system. QEMU’s great performance is ensured via a dynamic translation.
12 Best FREE Virtual Machine (VM) Software in 2020
QEMU is another popular emulator and virtualization machine, which is a short form of Quick Emulator. This system is written in C language.
Source: www.guru99.com
7 VirtualBox Alternatives You Can Consider
QEMU stands for “quick emulator” which is a highly capable open source and free virtualization software. It has support for Windows, Linux, and macOS as a guest and can also run on all three host platforms. Installing it is comparatively easier but gets a bit complicated while using it. While it doesn’t need a high configuration PC to run. To run your guest OS on the virtual...

Boxes Reviews

10 Apps Used to Sell Anything for Cash
Boxes is interesting because it’s categorized under social media in the app store. This app has a broader focus by allowing users to organize and catalog a collection, connect with people who have similar interests, and then list those collections for sale.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, QEMU seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 3 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

QEMU mentions (3)

  • Podman and production use
    Qemu.org, wiki.qemu.org, patchew.org, kvm-forum.qemu.org are all Podman containers on the same machine (running CentOS Stream 9) with an nginx front-end. Nginx and certbot are the only two things that run outside containers. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • From WampServer, to Vagrant, to QEMU
    As someone who enjoys playing video games, and a recent convert to Linux, I was well aware of the derth of support for games. I was also aware of some of the solutions, one of those being GPU passthrough to this thing called QEMU. QEMU is a fast and lightweight machine emulator and virtualizer. This was of course something that interested me, so I went about exploring QEMU and playing with it. When I first started... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Premium fonts on Linux
    Install the windows-version using https://WineHQ.org or put in an a VM, like https://qemu.org/. Source: almost 3 years ago

Boxes mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Boxes yet. Tracking of Boxes recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing QEMU and Boxes, you can also consider the following products

VirtualBox - VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as...

VMware Workstation - VMware Workstation is a multiple operating system handler to easily evaluate the any other type of new operating systems.

Proxmox VE - Proxmox is an open-source server virtualization management solution that offers the ability to manage virtual server technology with the Linux OpenVZ and KVM technology.

virt-manager - The virt-manager application is a desktop user interface for managing virtual machines through...

Portable Virtualbox - Portable-VirtualBox is a free and open source software tool that lets you run any operating system from a usb stick without separate installation. Installation instructions. Download and run Portable-VirtualBox_v5.

Parallels Desktop - Parallels Desktop 10 is a hardware and operating system virtualization program designed for the users of Mac Operating System to enjoy the most of the versions of Windows operating systems in their machine.