Neither is a direct “2960 IOS download,” but both behave like a Catalyst 2960 for lab purposes (VLANs, STP, EtherChannel, etc.).
images, which provide nearly identical functionality to a 2960 or 3750 switch. Physical Hardware: if you own a physical Cisco 2960, you can technically copy the IOS image from its flash memory cisco 2960 switch ios download for gns3
: Virtual switch images (vIOS) generally require around 512 MB of RAM . Some users report throughput limitations (sometimes as low as 1MB) compared to physical hardware, though this is rarely an issue for lab-based command practice. Neither is a direct “2960 IOS download,” but