Open-source alternatives to Hyperkit

This project is a Linux kernel designed for Windows Linux integration, providing the underlying operating system kernel required to execute binary files and applications within the Windows Subsystem for Linux. It utilizes hypervisor-based virtualization to run a full kernel within a lightweight utility virtual machine managed by a Windows host. The repository enables the customization and compilation of the kernel from source. This allows for the modification of system behavior, the addition of specific drivers, and the tailoring of hardware compatibility for virtualized environments. The sy

Firecracker is a virtual machine monitor that leverages hardware-assisted virtualization to create and manage isolated execution environments. It functions as a lightweight runtime designed to launch virtual machines with minimal memory overhead and near-instantaneous startup times, providing the security of traditional hardware virtualization with the efficiency of containerized workloads. The project distinguishes itself through a security-focused architecture that enforces strict process boundaries using system-level barriers and restricted user privileges. It minimizes the attack surface

WebVM is a browser-based virtualization platform that executes a full Linux operating system directly within a web browser. By leveraging WebAssembly and client-side virtualization, it simulates hardware to run native applications and development toolchains without requiring server-side infrastructure or remote desktop configurations. The platform distinguishes itself by providing a portable computing workspace that operates entirely on the client side. It includes capabilities for bridging virtual environments to private networks, allowing secure access to internal resources directly from th

UTM is a comprehensive virtualization suite that provides a unified interface for running guest operating systems on host hardware. It functions as a cross-platform system emulator and hypervisor, coordinating both hardware-accelerated virtualization and software-based instruction emulation to execute diverse operating systems. By leveraging native kernel-level virtualization frameworks, the software achieves near-native performance while maintaining strict security through sandboxed process isolation. The project distinguishes itself by enabling full-featured desktop operating systems to run

Wren is an embeddable, class-based scripting language and bytecode interpreter. It provides a dependency-free virtual machine designed for integrating dynamic script execution into host applications via a C API. The language is centered on a modern object-oriented model featuring inheritance, method overloading, and first-class functions. It utilizes a concurrent fiber runtime to manage lightweight, cooperatively scheduled execution paths without relying on operating system threads. The project includes a comprehensive suite of object-oriented primitives, closure-based state capture, and a m

xhyve is a macOS virtual machine manager and virtualization tool that leverages the native hypervisor framework to run guest operating systems in userspace. It provides a virtualization layer for executing guest systems with hardware acceleration. The project features a hardware pass-through hypervisor that maps physical host devices directly to guest virtual machines to increase performance. It includes a remote framebuffer server and VNC access to enable interaction with the guest display and input devices from external devices. The tool covers virtual hardware emulation for storage, netwo

The solana-program-library is a blockchain system program suite providing a library of core blockchain operations and native functions implemented as reusable programs on Solana. It serves as a collection of smart contract templates and reference implementations for deploying verified programs to the Solana virtual machine. The project provides decentralized application infrastructure by offering standardized programs that act as foundational building blocks for applications. It focuses on the development and deployment of verified blockchain contracts to ensure consistent functionality acros

LXD is a system container manager and virtual machine manager that provides a unified interface for running full Linux systems. It acts as a container cluster orchestrator, an image format converter, and an infrastructure manager that exposes control through a REST API and language-specific SDKs. The project distinguishes itself by providing a unified container and virtual machine abstraction, treating both as generic instances within a single management layer. It supports distributed cluster coordination to synchronize state and distribute workloads across multiple physical nodes. The syste

seL4 is a formally verified microkernel whose C implementation is backed by machine-checked mathematical proofs of correctness, confidentiality, integrity, and availability. It enforces strict isolation between processes through hardware-enforced address space separation and a capability-based access control system, where each process holds explicit rights only to the resources it has been granted. The kernel exposes hardware resources through a minimal API of system calls that manage threads, address spaces, and inter-process communication, with synchronous IPC supporting sender-identifying b

86Box is a low-level x86 hardware emulator and vintage PC simulator designed to replicate early IBM PC compatibles. It provides virtualized environments for executing legacy operating systems, such as MS-DOS and early versions of Windows, by simulating processors and system designs ranging from the 8086 through the Pentium era. The project distinguishes itself through cycle-accurate processor simulation and high-fidelity hardware emulation. This includes the ability to route retro MIDI audio data to emulated hardware modules or external synthesizers to achieve authentic audio playback from le

Cloud Hypervisor is a Rust-based hypervisor and KVM virtual machine monitor designed to execute 64-bit guest operating systems. It functions as a user-space virtual machine manager that employs a minimal emulation layer to reduce memory overhead and latency for cloud workloads. The project distinguishes itself through the use of a memory-safe language to implement a virtio device emulator and a user-space device model. It provides a standardized web API for managing virtual machine lifecycles and resource configurations. The platform covers broad virtualization capabilities, including the em

xv6-riscv is a simplified Unix-like teaching operating system designed for the study of kernel design and hardware interaction. It provides a low-level RISC-V kernel implementation that serves as a bootable system image for execution and debugging within a virtual machine or emulator. The project focuses on educational instruction regarding the RISC-V architecture. It enables the study of operating system concepts through a minimal kernel that implements process management and memory handling. The system covers core kernel operations including multiprocessor resource management and the imple

Miasm is a Python reverse engineering framework designed for binary analysis, disassembly, and modification. It functions as a binary analysis framework that lifts machine code into an intermediate representation to enable platform-independent security research. The system operates as a binary emulation engine and modification toolkit, allowing for the execution of binary code in a virtual environment to track state changes without native hardware. It provides tools for binary patching to update and modify raw binary files across multiple CPU architectures and executable formats. The framewo

VirtualBuddy is a graphical user interface and manager for creating and running macOS virtual machines on Apple Silicon. It serves as an interface for the native Apple Virtualization Framework, allowing users to provision and boot guest operating systems on ARM-based hardware. The tool provides a dedicated environment for managing virtual machine administration and software compatibility testing across different macOS versions. It enables the execution of guests via local files, remote URLs, or image catalogs, and supports booting into recovery mode for system repairs. The system covers hard

LXD is a unified platform for managing both system containers and virtual machines through a single REST API and command-line interface. It provides a programmatic HTTP interface for controlling the full lifecycle of instances, enabling automation and integration with external tools. The system runs unprivileged containers with per-instance UID/GID mappings, seccomp filters, and AppArmor profiles for kernel-level isolation, while supporting multiple storage backends including directory, Btrfs, LVM, ZFS, Ceph, LINSTOR, and TrueNAS through a unified driver interface. The platform distinguishes

OSWorld is an evaluation framework and multimodal agent benchmark designed to test the ability of large language models to complete complex tasks within virtualized operating system environments. It provides a virtualized desktop sandbox and a virtual machine orchestrator to deploy, snapshot, and reset cloud-based desktops, ensuring reproducible test states for AI agent interactions. The system distinguishes itself by providing an OS-level action space that translates model decisions into mouse clicks, keyboard inputs, and system commands. It employs a standardized interface to integrate vari

WSABuilds is a management framework designed to deploy and customize virtualized mobile runtime environments on desktop operating systems. It provides a comprehensive suite of tools for building, installing, and maintaining these environments, enabling the native execution of mobile applications alongside standard desktop software. The project distinguishes itself through its focus on deep system integration and lifecycle management. It allows users to generate tailored virtual environment packages by injecting administrative tools, service components, and specific configurations prior to dep

This project provides a functional package manager and a reproducible build system designed to ensure identical build inputs always produce the same outputs. It serves as the foundation for a declarative Linux distribution where the entire system state is defined in a configuration file, enabling predictable deployments and full-system rollbacks. The system uses a deterministic functional language and a lazy-evaluation expression engine to manage software dependencies and isolate build environments. It distinguishes itself through a content-addressable store that allows multiple versions of s

AIOS is an LLM agent operating system and orchestration kernel designed to manage memory, resource scheduling, and tool execution for multiple autonomous AI agents. It serves as a comprehensive framework for developing and deploying agents, featuring a dedicated resource manager that coordinates model backends, GPU memory, and isolated kernel instances. The system distinguishes itself through a semantic memory engine that uses vector search and autonomous clustering for long-term knowledge management, and a semantic file system that allows users to control computer files and system operations

ExHyperV is a suite of administrative tools designed for managing advanced Hyper-V configurations, specifically focusing on GPU partitioning, device passthrough, and virtual network switches. It provides a graphical interface to configure virtual machine resources and optimize hypervisor settings. The project is distinguished by its ability to share physical graphics card resources across multiple virtual machines using paravirtualization and partitioning. It also provides specialized utilities for assigning PCIe devices and USB peripherals directly to guest machines for exclusive access. Th

KubeVirt is a Kubernetes virtualization platform and cloud-native hypervisor manager. It provides a runtime environment that allows virtual machines to be defined, launched, and managed as declarative resources within a Kubernetes cluster, enabling them to run alongside containers on the same nodes. The system enables the hybridization of cloud infrastructure by combining traditional virtual machines with containerized workloads on a single shared platform. It supports the live migration of running virtual machines between physical hosts to facilitate cluster maintenance and load balancing.

Magentic-UI is an agentic UI toolkit and framework that enables large language models to interface with real-time browser environments, operating systems, and virtual machines. It provides a sandbox environment where models can execute instructions to manage local files and run shell commands. The project functions as a web interaction orchestrator and browser automation framework, allowing for the execution of end-to-end web workflows and form completions. It coordinates these actions through a system that translates natural language goals into executable sequences. The toolkit covers sever

monoio is a high-performance asynchronous runtime and executor for Rust. It implements a thread-per-core concurrency model that pins tasks to specific CPU cores to eliminate synchronization overhead and data migration. The runtime leverages the io_uring interface to perform non-blocking system calls and reduce kernel-user mode memory copying. It utilizes a high-performance I/O driver and zero-copy TCP stream wrapping to manage data transfer via shared-memory buffers. The project provides capabilities for CPU core affinity management, low-latency system programming, and high-performance netwo

IPAPatch is an iOS application patching and binary instrumentation tool. It is designed to inject dynamic libraries and custom frameworks into decrypted application packages to modify runtime behavior without requiring a jailbroken device. The tool functions as an external debugger interface, preparing applications to allow the setting of breakpoints and the inspection of objects in real time. It enables the integration of third-party service frameworks into existing applications to add new capabilities or specialized inspection tools. The project covers binary modification, including the pa

This project is a freestanding kernel written in Rust that boots on x86 hardware without a standard library. It serves as a low-level system implementation focusing on the creation of a bare metal operating system. The system implements a bootable disk image toolchain that transforms source code into binaries compatible with a bootloader. It features a custom memory allocator for dynamic memory management and an x86 kernel implementation that includes paging, interrupt handling, and VGA text mode. The project covers several core capability areas, including low-level memory management through

Rancher Desktop is a cross-platform desktop application for Windows and macOS that provides a graphical interface for managing local containers and Kubernetes clusters. It serves as a local development environment for running and coordinating containerized workloads on a personal workstation. The project features a pluggable container engine, allowing users to switch between different runtimes such as containerd or Docker within a single interface. It automates the provisioning of local Kubernetes distributions to facilitate the development and testing of orchestration environments. The appl

Talos is a minimal, immutable Linux distribution designed specifically for deploying and managing Kubernetes clusters. It functions as an API-driven infrastructure manager that replaces traditional shell access with a declarative gRPC interface to control operating system state and configuration. The system is distinguished by its use of a read-only root filesystem and a security-hardened kernel, which removes standard GNU utilities to reduce the attack surface. It ensures environment consistency by distributing the operating system as versioned, signed images and utilizes TPM-backed verified