What are the advantages of the new Virtualization Framework in macOS Big Sur?

Compare Virtualization Framework and Hypervisor Framework

Saeed Zarinfam
2 min readAug 9, 2021
Image from Apple

Apple Virtualization Framework allows us to create and run virtual machines (based on Linux-based OS). This new framework was introduced in the macOS Big Sur as an alternative for the Hypervisor Framework.

By using these high-level APIs offers by Virtualization Framework, unlike the Hypervisor Framework, you can easily spin up a VM using a High-level programming language like Swift. The Hypervisor Framework is low level and it is very hard to work with its APIs (C-based APIs) but the new Virtualization Framework’s APIs are based on Swift and Objective-C.

You can take look at this great GitHub repository to find out more about those high-level APIs that calling in the Swift codes:

Actually, the Virtualization Framework is just a new layer on top of the old Hypervisor Framework to offer simpler APIs for creating VMs.

Main Advantages:

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Saeed Zarinfam

📖 Lifelong Learner 👨‍💻☕️ Programmer ✍️ Technical Writer 🛠️ Maker