I've been trying to get into Linux lately, and while experimenting with different distros on VirtualBox, I've come across it being a a 'type 2' hypervisor. Now, after a quick search, it became clear what type 1 and type 2 hypervisors are, but my question is, what is the point of using a type 2 hypervisor instead for directly installing the OS?
Everything I had come across seems to focus on comparisons between Type 1 vs Type 2, rather than telling why use Type 1 instead of a direct OS installations.
A type 1 hypervisor runs directly on the machine without a "host" operating system, such as Linux, running underneath. Thus, since there is no "host" operating system consuming resources, such as compute, memory, and I/O bandwidth, the hypervisor can provide more resources to the virtual machines.
On the other hand, a type 2 hypervisor runs on top of a "host" operating system. This generally makes the type 2 hypervisor easier to install and configure, though the "host" operating system consumes resources that now cannot be provided to the virtual machines.