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Here another helpful solution for people who want to evaluate and compare different Linux distributions: GNOME Boxes, a software to easily create virtual machines


.... virtual machines where you only have to select which accompanying image of Arch / Tumbleweed / Ubuntu / Fedora you want to try.

In addition, the combination of a very stable base system (say, Debian or SuSE Leap) with a fast-moving, bleeading edge virtualized system (say, SuSE Tumbleweed, Arch or Guix) on top can be surprisingly useful. And because small virtual machines, when not running, are nothing else than files on your computer, you can have many versions of them, alter things, try stuff out, then delete it and go back to the tidy original state.

Questa voce è stata modificata (1 mese fa)
in reply to HaraldvonBlauzahn

For example in Debian Bookworm:

packages.debian.org/bookworm/g…

If you want a more complex way of creating and managing VMs, there is also virt-manager. But I feel that one is more suited for, say, professional use.

in reply to HaraldvonBlauzahn

i suspect that virt-manager is a supplement since you can do everything via virsh.
in reply to eldavi

That's right, virt-manager is a GUI with many, many options. It is more tailored to run several VMs at once, give limited network access into or out of them, and so on.

Also very handy to run tiny, outdated Windows systems with an app you can't get rid off isolated from the net because it runs your grandpa's heart-lung machine or so.

Questa voce è stata modificata (1 mese fa)
in reply to HaraldvonBlauzahn

now that i think of it, it's more than a supplement because it makes the software defined networking MUCH MORE intuitive if you're using KVM/QEMU.
in reply to eldavi

Yeah. Makes it also easy to share files between host and VM via NFS, which can be handy when running cooperating desktop systems.
in reply to HaraldvonBlauzahn

that too; i guess it's wrong to call it a supplement when it unifies all these systems that seem disperate if you don't already know the kvm/qemu ecosystem.
in reply to HaraldvonBlauzahn

I am not sure I would run grandpa’s heart-lung machine in a QEMU VM. Other than that, spot on.
in reply to Karna

Now I am curious. Is this really web-based? Who has tried it? How useful is it?
Questa voce è stata modificata (1 mese fa)
in reply to HaraldvonBlauzahn

Someone else brought up Virt Manager here, which is my preferred; if you’ve ever used VirtualBox, you’ll probably be fine on Virt Manager. I like Virt Manager for using GTK3, as I’m in XFCE. I wouldn’t be surprised if both applications have similar settings, as they’re both LibVirt front ends, it seems.

Also, DistroBox, while a different sort of thing, is great for the sort of thing OP mentioned in that last paragraph. I usually just use command line, but there seems to be an unofficial GUI out there.

in reply to HaraldvonBlauzahn

Gnome boxes even downloads the iso for you. We should recommend it for new users over the other ones.
in reply to DonutsRMeh

Yeah, that was the point I was trying to explain - it is simple, and this can make it a good choice.
in reply to HaraldvonBlauzahn

I run Bazzite which is immutable and rock solid stable. I use Boxbuddy which is a frontend for Distrobox to install packages from any distro when I can't find it on brew.
in reply to HaraldvonBlauzahn

Boxes is very clean and functional. I even use it on Plasma. Great app
in reply to HaraldvonBlauzahn

I really like Boxes, but since it can only run VMs in the unprivileged qemu:///session, it simply doesn't support features like PCI passthrough, autostart or even slightly sophisticated networking setups. :/
in reply to HaraldvonBlauzahn

I moved to virt manager from boxes as I it let me down too many times with bugs. VMs would not restart and snapshots would fail to launch.