86Box is described as 'Hypervisor and IBM PC system emulator that specializes in running old operating systems and software designed for IBM PC systems and compatibles from 1981 through fairly recent system designs based on the PCI bus' and is a Virtualization tool in the network & admin category. There are more than 10 alternatives to 86Box for a variety of platforms, including Mac, Windows, Linux, BSD and iPad apps. The best 86Box alternative is VirtualBox, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like 86Box are DOSBox, UTM, DOSBox-X and DOSBox Staging.
Open source VirtualBox offers powerful x86/AMD64 virtualization available freely under GNU GPL v2. Runs on Windows, Linux, Mac, Solaris hosts. Supports a vast array of guest OS like Windows, Linux, Solaris. Portable, lightweight, ad-free, with dark mode.
DOSBox is an emulator program which emulates an IBM PC compatible computer running a DOS operating system. Many IBM PC compatible graphics and sound cards are also emulated. This means that original DOS programs (including PC games) are provided with an environment in which they...
UTM is a full featured system emulator and virtual machine host for iOS and macOS. It is based off of QEMU. In short, it allows you to run Windows, Linux, and more on your Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
DOSBox-X is a fork of DOSBox that expands its PC hardware emulation (from the original IBM PC to progressively improving those of Windows 9x era) and all the options needed to tweak and configure the DOS virtual machine.
DOSBox Staging is a modern continuation of DOSBox with advanced features and current development practices.
Lima launches Linux virtual machines on macOS, with automatic file sharing, port forwarding, and containerd.
An enhanced SVN build of the DOS emulator which incorporates unofficial features and fixes that are not officially part of DOSBox.
PCem emulates an IBM 5150 PC, several models of clones and successors, along with various graphics adapters, sound devices, and peripherals.
Multipass is a lightweight VM manager for Linux, Windows and macOS. It's designed for developers who want a fresh Ubuntu environment with a single command. It uses KVM on Linux, Hyper-V on Windows and HyperKit on macOS to run the VM with minimal overhead.
CheerpX is an x86 virtualization technology for running executables and operating systems entirely client-side. It’s an always available, zero-cost virtual machine with guaranteed data privacy, powered by a WebAssembly JIT engine.
VirtualBuddy can virtualize macOS 12 and later on Apple Silicon, with the goal of offering features that are useful to developers who need to test their apps on multiple versions of macOS, especially betas.
Here you can find the original version of David Hedley's 8086 PC emulator, and my "improved" version. This will emulate a basic PC with a VGA text-only display quite well; there is a reasonable amount of software that will work with no problems.
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