Multipass
Multipass is a lightweight virtual machine manager for Linux, Windows and macOS. It simplifies setting up virtual Ubuntu instances in just a few clicks, allowing developers to easily create reproducible development environments.
virtualization
ubuntu
linux
docker
Multipass: Lightweight Virtual Machine Managers
Multipass is a lightweight virtual machine manager for Linux, Windows and macOS. It simplifies setting up virtual Ubuntu instances in just a few clicks, allowing developers to easily create reproducible development environments.
What is Multipass?
Multipass is an open source virtual machine manager developed by Canonical for Linux, Windows and macOS operating systems. It allows users to easily create, manage and run Ubuntu virtual machines.
Some key features of Multipass include:
- Simple command line interface to launch, delete and manage Ubuntu VMs
- Lightweight and fast VM launch times
- Support for the latest Ubuntu LTS releases
- Reproducible development environments for testing and collaboration
- VM image availability for Linux, macOS and Windows hosts
- Open source with an active community behind development
Multipass is targeted at developers and tech enthusiasts who want the simplicity of tools like Docker combined with the benefits of full VM environments. It excels at setting up disposable, reproducible Ubuntu test environments in just a few minutes.
Typical use cases include testing software across multiple Ubuntu versions, simulating complex networked systems, and spinning up compatible Linux dev environments for collaboration. The minimal overhead makes Multipass well suited for use on developer laptops.
Multipass Features
Features
- Create Ubuntu VMs with a single command
- CLI and GUI available
- Built-in SSH access to VMs
- Suspend and restart VMs while maintaining state
- Share folders between host and VMs
- Customizable CPU and memory allocation
- VM image caching to speed up launches
Pricing
- Free
- Open Source
Pros
Simple and easy to use
Lightweight and fast VM launches
Reproducible dev environments
Native clients for Linux, macOS and Windows
Active development and maintenance
Cons
Only supports Ubuntu VMs currently
Limited configuration options compared to other VM managers
No snapshot or cloning support yet
No built-in orchestration features
Official Links
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