OS virtualization and emulation on Android
Open-knowledge reference entry
Android devices have the ability to run virtual machines or emulate other operating systems. It does this either via desktop virtualization, platform virtualization, or emulation via compatibility layer.
Platform virtualization
Platform virtualization allows more leverage to the developer as anything that relates to the guest operating system only affects the guest operating system, and not the host operating system. Due to this it is possible for the guest operating system to be rooted, where as the host operating system remains unrooted. Due to the nature of platform virtualization and the fact that it can virtualize a rooted guest OS, it has a greater advantage over emulators as it can run applications or utilize packages that require access to the underlying system itself.
As with all platform virtualization software and applications, they take up a lot of resources of the host in order to do the virtualization.
Emulation
Types of emulations
Emulation of other operating systems
Emulation of other operating systems on Android require the usage of some form of compatibility layer, where the compatibility layer must utilize some form of technologies or APIs to run the OS inside of the app container. This does come with limitations as some emulators utilize PRoot which is a chroot like environment. Unlike terminal emulators that emulate the internal OS with/without any extension package support, it can install actual (for example) Ubuntu packages, as it does not rely too much on the Android system limitations. However, not all packages and applications can run.
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