Take Control of Running Windows on a Mac, 3rd Edition

Virtualization Software

Any program that provides a way for one operating system to work within another can be called virtualization software. When such software is running, the environment it creates for another operating system is called a virtual machine, and an operating system that runs inside that virtual machine is called a guest operating system (to distinguish it from the main OS the computer is running, called the host operating system).

Even though Intel-based Macs have the same type of CPU as PCs, you still need a virtual machine to run Windows within Mac OS X. One reason is that apart from the CPU, there are other hardware differences between Macs and PCs and thus other hardware components that must be emulated. Another reason is that ...