QEMU M1: A Free and Open-Source Virtualization Solution for Apple Silicon

Similar to VMware Workstation (and Parallels), UTM allows you to securely virtualize and emulate guest operating systems on your Mac. However, VMware is a little behind with their Apple Silicon implementation, which is why I have selected QEMU M1 as my preferred virtualization solution.

QEMU M1 is free and open-source software that offers the same level of flexibility and customization as UTM. Additionally, it's available via the Mac App Store for £8.99 if you'd like to support the project.

On a Linux or Windows host, I use VMware Workstation for client-side virtualization mainly because I have years of experience working with VMware products. This includes running Microsoft Windows 11 Insider Preview for ARM and Microsoft Windows 10 Insider Preview for ARM.

Fortunately, QEMU M1 covers all the main bases, including Fedora, Ubuntu (Debian-based), Arch Linux, as well as Microsoft Windows 10/11. However, the AArch64 ecosystem is less mature than x86-64 for 'desktop' computing, which reduces the number of compatible guest operating systems.

Despite this limitation, with the shift to Apple Silicon, the AArch64 (ARM64) instruction set is required to achieve native/optimal performance. Historically, these virtual machines leveraged the x86-64 instruction set, which is native to Intel and AMD processors.

As someone who uses virtualization frequently for testing and running specialist workloads, I've been testing client-side virtualization on Apple Silicon with the 2021 MacBook Pro. Overall, QEMU M1 has proven to be a reliable and efficient solution for my needs.

Qemu m1