{"id":8536,"date":"2012-12-14T13:18:41","date_gmt":"2012-12-14T13:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/guest-operating-system\/"},"modified":"2012-12-18T10:05:09","modified_gmt":"2012-12-18T10:05:09","slug":"guest-operating-system","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/16576\/guest-operating-system-guest-os","title":{"rendered":"Guest Operating System"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_guest_operating_system_mean\">What Does Guest Operating System Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A guest operating system (guest OS) is an operating system (OS) that is secondary to the OS originally installed on a computer, which is known as the host operating system. The guest OS is either part of a partitioned system or part of a virtual machine (VM) setup. A guest OS provides an alternative OS for a device.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_guest_operating_system\">Techopedia Explains Guest Operating System<\/span><\/h2>\n<p> In disk partitioning, a guest OS is simply another instance of the same operating system that can boot up for controlling a certain partitioned memory set. A virtual machine (VM) process is much different, in that a guest OS can be a different OS alternative. In VM setups, a guest OS is delivered through a virtual machine environment through a tool called a hypervisor. Again, the machine will typically have a host OS, where the guest OS will operate &quot;within&quot; the host OS. This can lead to limitations on file saving and other operations within the guest OS, depending on whether the guest OS is said to be &quot;persistent.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Part of the emergence of guest operating systems in VM systems has to do with the benefits provided by virtualization. These revolutions in computing coincide with the more general concept of cloud computing, where resources are delivered, rather than hosted, in physical local hardware setups. In addition, a guest OS often takes advantage of a lean OS build, where memory requirements are further alleviated. VM setups can help with licensing issues, system requirements and more, making these an attractive part of an outsourced computing service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Guest Operating System Mean? A guest operating system (guest OS) is an operating system (OS) that is secondary to the OS originally installed on a computer, which is known as the host operating system. The guest OS is either part of a partitioned system or part of a virtual machine (VM) setup. A [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[215,230],"class_list":["post-8536","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-cloud-computing","definitioncat-privacy-and-compliance"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is a Guest Operating System (Guest OS)? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Guest Operating System and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Guest Operating System\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Guest Operating System and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/16576\/guest-operating-system-guest-os\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-12-18T10:05:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/16576\/guest-operating-system-guest-os#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/16576\/guest-operating-system-guest-os\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Guest Operating System\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-12-14T13:18:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-12-18T10:05:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/16576\/guest-operating-system-guest-os\"},\"wordCount\":270,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/16576\/guest-operating-system-guest-os#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/16576\/guest-operating-system-guest-os\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/16576\/guest-operating-system-guest-os\",\"name\":\"What is a Guest Operating System (Guest OS)? 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