---
title: Guests support
description: 
published: true
date: 2023-02-11T21:58:25.082Z
tags: 
editor: markdown
dateCreated: 2022-01-12T14:25:25.960Z
---

# Guest operating system

> Phyllome OS 🤎 other operating systems. It is meant to be a cozy platform for almost any modern operating systems to thrive.

Although Phyllome OS would like to support as many operating systems as possible, it mainly focuses on modern, UEFI-compatible operating systems that are shipping with at least some support for `virtio` devices. 

## Category of operating systems

As of today, without accounting for Linux distributions, there are dozens of production-ready operating systems. There are two families of operating systems that dominate this space, the Unix family and the Windows family. Everything else will be categorized as independent. 

### UNIX-family

When it comes to its longevity and number of variants, the UNIX family is by far the most prolific family of all.

* **Linux**
	* Debian, Fedora, Android, Chromium OS, etc.
* **BSD** 
	* OpenBSD, FreeBSD, etc.
  * Darwin-based operating systems, such as macOS
* **Solaris**
	* OpenSolaris, Illumnos, etc.

### Windows-family

* **Windows**
	* Windows and ReactOS

### Independent

* **SculptOS**
* **FuschiaOS**

## Support matrix

> Support for guest systems differs widely. In general, free and open-source operating systems such as Linux distributions are better supported than proprietary operating systems.
{.is-info}

* *The table below only show support for the latest operating systems.*

| | Linux | Darwin | Windows |
| :- | :-: | :-: | :-: |
| *Chipset* | `i440fx` `Q35` `virt` | `Q35` | `i440fx` `Q35` `virt` |
| *Platform firmware* | [`SeaBIOS`](/virt/vm/firmware#seabios) [`OVMF`](/virt/vm/firmware#ovmf) [`RHF`](/virt/vm/firmware#rust-hypervisor-firmware) [^1] | [`OVMF`](/virt/vm/firmware#ovmf) | [`SeaBIOS`](/virt/vm/firmware#seabios) [`OVMF`](/virt/vm/firmware#ovmf) [`RHF`](/virt/vm/firmware#rust-hypervisor-firmware) |
| *`virtio-gpu`* | **Yes** | No | No |
| *`virtio-video`* | *Upcoming* | No | No |
| *`virtio-snd`* | *Upcoming* | No | No |
| *`virtio-blk`* | **Yes** | **Yes** | **Yes** |
| *`virtio-scsi`* | **Yes** | No | **Yes** |
| *`virtio-fs`* | **Yes** | No | **Yes** |
| *`virtio-net`* | **Yes** |  **Yes** | **Yes** |
| *`virtio-keyboard`* | **Yes** | No | **Yes** |
| *`virtio-tablet`* | **Yes** | No | **Yes** |

[^1]: RHF stands for the Rust Hypervisor Firmware

## Resource

* **Distrowatch**: 
	* [All active operating systems and Linux distributions](https://distrowatch.com/search.php?ostype=All&category=All&origin=All&basedon=All&notbasedon=None&desktop=All&architecture=All&package=All&rolling=All&isosize=All&netinstall=All&language=All&defaultinit=All&status=Active#simple) listed on Distrowatch
	* [List of other operating systems awaiting validation](https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=links#new), still on Distrowatch
* **OSDev.org**
	* [OSDev.org](https://wiki.osdev.org/Main_Page), a great place to learn about Operating System Development.
	* [List of active operating systems](https://wiki.osdev.org/Projects) on OSDev.org
  
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*[**Go to parent page**](https://wiki.phyllo.me/)*