How is VMware based on UNIX?

Question

I am studying a course of Operating Systems, and I have just read the textbook saying that

UNIX became the basis for Apple's MacOS X, Linux, VMware, and Google Android.

What? ... It surprised me because this sentence tells me that VMware (a virtualization tool) is based on UNIX (an operating system).

Could someone help me understand how we can say VMware is based on UNIX?

I think they're talking about VMware's ESXi, a hypervisor. See this article: “It’s a Unix system, I know this!” — nanny, Mar 13 '15 at 14:15
this article will explain a bit more also: http://www.v-front.de/2013/08/a-myth-busted-and-faq-esxi-is-not-based.html — Ricardo, Mar 13 '15 at 15:24

Ortomala Lokni · Answer 1 · 2022-10-07T13:17:30.513

VMware's ESXi is apparently based on the linux kernel. There is a lawsuit about this because the linux kernel is under GPL v2.

Here is a comparison between a system using a complete linux kernel and a system with VMware ESXi.

== Update==

The lawsuit has concluded see:

1 Answers1