# Xen hypervisor 12 Hacker News commenters recommended Xen hypervisor and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Recommended for strong isolation of networking, CPU and RAM, and as the hypervisor under Qubes. Critics note it periodically has CVEs. ## Why people recommend it - Suits strong isolation and project needs (2 comments): "a very elegant and robust answer for strong isolation of networking and resources like CPU and RAM" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47266258)) "We believe that the Xen hypervisor architecture better suits the needs of our project." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49938431)) - Praised as excellent, high-quality platform (2 comments): "excellent virtual machine platforms (KVM, Xen and even VMWare)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47935883)) "high-quality practical implementations" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46441379)) - Used as base for other projects (2 comments): "Probably the easiest way to do this would be to start from Xen" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49056402)) "I am ripping off the best ideas from xen/Qubes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49504589)) ## What people warn about - Security issues and CVEs recur (2 comments): "VT-d, which statistically has much less security issues than Xen itself" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46543133)) "Even Xen (VM used by Qubes) periodically has CVEs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50165330)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Proxmox VE](https://hackerapproved.com/p/proxmox-ve.md): 208 recommend - [Incus](https://hackerapproved.com/p/incus.md): 90 recommend - [KVM](https://hackerapproved.com/p/kvm.md): 32 recommend - [bhyve hypervisor](https://hackerapproved.com/p/bhyve.md): 17 recommend - [Sylve](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sylve.md): 17 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Xen hypervisor", https://hackerapproved.com/p/xen/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).