Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) is a virtualization infrastructure for the Linux kernel that turns it into a hypervisor. It was merged into the Linux kernel mainline in kernel version 2.6.20.
License: Open Source
VMware Workstation Player is user-friendly and suitable for desktop virtualization with various OS support, making it ideal for beginners. KVM, being open-source and highly customizable, excels in Linux environments and offers better performance for server virtualization, but may be more complex to configure.