GNOME Boxes vs Proxmox VE

GNOME Boxes is a free Linux desktop app for creating and managing local virtual machines, then installing an operating system in them. Its automatic installation list includes CentOS Stream, Debian, Fedora, Microsoft Windows, OpenSUSE, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and Ubuntu. Users can set memory and storage limits, save a VM state as a snapshot, and restore it later. Host integration includes shared clipboard, file drop, and shared folders; USB redirection makes devices plugged into the computer available inside a VM. Guest tools can improve input performance, screen resizing, clipboard sharing, and file transfer. Windows guests use spice-guest-tools, while Linux guests commonly use spice-vdagent. Boxes uses qemu-kvm, libvirt-glib, and spice-gtk to manage virtual machines. Three-dimensional acceleration is available for some supported systems. GNOME recommends processor virtualization extensions, at least 8 GB RAM, and 20 GB free disk space for efficient use. Boxes is for local VMs; GNOME points to Connections for remote machines and displays. The app is free and desktop-only.

Proxmox VE is an open-source, self-hosted server virtualization platform that manages KVM virtual machines and Linux Containers from an integrated web interface. A bare-metal installation includes a 64-bit Debian GNU/Linux operating system with a Proxmox kernel; installation uses the selected server and removes existing data on selected disks. Administrators can also manage the system through a command-line interface and REST API. The cluster stack supports multi-node management from any node, with high availability monitoring and automatic action when a VM or container fails. Running VMs can migrate between cluster nodes without noticeable end-user downtime. Storage options include NFS, SMB/CIFS, iSCSI, Ceph, GlusterFS, LVM, ZFS and directory storage. Proxmox Backup Server integration provides incremental encrypted backups, live restore and single-file recovery. The software is free to download under GNU AGPLv3. Paid subscriptions are per occupied physical CPU socket; each cluster server needs coverage at the same subscription level. The maker is Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH, founded in 2005 and headquartered in Vienna, Austria.