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While there are eumlators like QEMU, the performance for whole-os operation is so bad as to be essentially useless.

Virtualization engines will require ARM based guests. Note that those guests will not run Intel software, except for Windows 11 which as a rosetta-like capability built in - linux guests will not run intel software. Parallels and Fusion are the two options. Right now Parallels has much better windows 11 arm support, but they do some sketchy things license-wise (e.g. they're getting install media from somewhere that's not disclosed). Fusion is perfectly fine for ARM though.

If you really do need an intel guest, then you need to run an intel host. There's no other realistic option.
You can run intel software in docker containers pretty easily. It just uses qemu for everything inside the intel guest container.

Also Apple has enabled extending Rosetta to emulated guests but I don’t know if any emulation platforms I.e. parallels or virtualbox support this yet.

As a one-off, the docker solution is fine. For long term needs to run amd64 software, yeah amd64 hardware is OP’s best bet.
 
Hello,

When changing the laptop from macbook pro 2011 for the new Macbook m2, to work I need to virtualize Ubuntu amd x64 and I have tried several programs but it does not support it. someone could help me ? Is it possible that there is nothing for the management that I need? Regards, thank you
You can't get an x86 OS to run virtualized on an Apple Silicon Mac (that includes any Mac with M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, M1 Ultra, or M2). You CAN get an x86 OS to run emulated on an Apple Silicon Mac, but as was mentioned before, the performance will be poor. As was also stated, you can translate x86 Linux binaries to run on a virtualized ARM64 Linux virtual machine using Rosetta. But, if you NEED the full x86 Linux to be running, you will need an Intel Mac or a PC. Apple Silicon Macs are not what to get if you want to run x86 operating systems.
 
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"Confusingly" because amd64 looks a lot like arm64 when you're looking at a directory that contains files for both platforms. Also, because there are several terms for Intel 64-bit in common use.
So I went and researched this, and apparently x86-64 was the name AMD came up with, and the name that the Linux kernel (which supported the architecture substantially before other OSes) uses. But almost everybody else other than Apple (e.g. Microsoft, the BSDs, even most some Linux distributions) use amd64.
 
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So I went and researched this, and apparently x86-64 was the name AMD came up with, and the name that the Linux kernel (which supported the architecture substantially before other OSes) uses. But almost everybody else other than Apple (e.g. Microsoft, the BSDs, even most some Linux distributions) use amd64.
Some sources claim that x86-64 (or x86_64) was the working name of the project during development, and that AMD64 was the official name used at release. Even in AMD’s own documentation, the AMD64 is used. Not that it really matters for the topic of this thread though.
 
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You can't get an x86 OS to run virtualized
...
You CAN get an x86 OS to run emulated
That's the huge difference. I tried UTM and emulated windows 10 installed and it was not useable. It reminded me of the old Virtual PC product from MS which was the only way to run windows on a PPC Mac back in the day. I used the word "run" so loosely because that was painfully slow as well.
 
That's the huge difference. I tried UTM and emulated windows 10 installed and it was not useable. It reminded me of the old Virtual PC product from MS which was the only way to run windows on a PPC Mac back in the day. I used the word "run" so loosely because that was painfully slow as well.
Ah...the good ol' Virtual PC days. Yeah, it sucks that we're going back to a place where x86 has to be emulated on a Mac to run x86 operating systems on a Mac. I still remain hopeful that Windows for ARM64 becomes more...Mac friendly (in terms of our ability to get it running in such a fashion that it's supported by Microsoft).
 
we're going back to a place where x86 has to be emulated
I think for a lot of reasons, emulation of windows won't catch on this go around. If you need/want to run windows and arm windows doesn't cut it, then another computer is in your future.
 
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