QEMU vs virt-manager

QEMU is a free, open-source machine emulator and virtualizer. System emulation models an entire machine, including its CPU, memory and devices, so it can run a guest operating system. User-mode emulation runs processes built for one CPU architecture on another. The package also includes qemu-img, a command-line utility for creating, converting and modifying disk images. QEMU can work with KVM, Xen and Hypervisor.Framework so guests can run directly on the host CPU. Supported build platforms include Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD and Windows. Windows support is limited to 64-bit, while macOS requires the newest version currently available; support for the prior version is eventually dropped. For complex networking and storage configurations, the project recommends management tools such as virt-manager. Its security guidance distinguishes virtualization with an accelerator and listed machine type from TCG non-virtualization use, which does not provide guest-isolation or security guarantees. QEMU is released under GNU GPL version 2, with some components under specific licenses.

virt-manager is a desktop interface for managing virtual machines through libvirt, chiefly for KVM, with support for Xen and LXC as well. It connects to local and remote hosts and displays live performance and resource-use statistics for running domains. Setup wizards help create domains and assign resources and virtual hardware, while an embedded VNC and SPICE viewer provides a graphical guest console. The interface also manages host virtual networks, storage pools, and network interfaces. Companion command-line tools handle provisioning, cloning, and editing virtual machines. virt-manager runs on Linux and OpenBSD hosts, supports both guest architectures, and includes snapshots and GPU acceleration. Installation options listed include Fedora, Debian, Gentoo, and OpenBSD packages, plus a source release. It is distributed under the GNU General Public License; current releases are GPG signed, with verification instructions. Documentation and a FAQ are available, support questions go to GitHub Discussions, and bug tracking is on GitHub.