How can I best add, most easily use, another operating system like Whonix to my mac laptop?

Question

I am hoping I can go to an added user. But I think I need to understand what Parallels are as that may be what I need to add.
Thanks,
J

Answer 1

A virtual machine software package is a hunk of software that presents itself as computing hardware to the guest operating system software.  The operating system software running as a guest within the virtual machine reads and writes memory and devices as it would do normally (when booted on physical hardware), and the virtual machine detects and translates these accesses and (hopefully) provides the responses expected by the guest operating system.  For input and output to the user or to storage or network devices, the virtual machine can be coded to potentially pass through the read and write access to real hardware and real hardware I/O registers, or the virtual machine might be coded to simulate hardware; what are called virtual devices.
This virtual machinary as differentiated from dual- or triple-booting via separate disks, or via Apple's shared-partition Boot Camp software.  In these cases, the operating system is booting directly on the hardware involved.  Shut down and reboot to swap operating systems.
The Whonix distribution specifically targets privacy, and I'm not sure I'd want to run that as a guest, as the virtual machine or the host operating system that the virtual machine is running on probably doesn't have the same focus, and (if you're truely paranoid) might well report the presence of at least the virtual machine via (even entirely innocent) bug reports or crashes or such.  This configuration might work as might dual-booting into Whonix via Boot Camp, though whether these configurations might leak information would have to be verified.
It'd probably be best to check with the Whonix folks directly around what they recommend, what's been tested, and what to look out for.  In cases such as this one, having, knowing, operating and maintaining the configuration properly is key, and that discussion is far beyond what's usual here in the Apple forums.