cubic

Cubic spins up Linux virtual machines on Linux, macOS and Windows with a single command.

Every distribution comes as a prebuilt cloud image and is ready to use within seconds, so you skip the long installation. Cubic keeps things simple and secure by acting as lightweight glue over proven tools. No privileged system service is required and every VM runs as your normal user, so you never need admin or root rights. Cubic is built on top of QEMU, EDK2, official cloud images and cloud-init.

One command takes you from nothing to a shell inside a fresh Linux VM. The images are official and verified, downloaded straight from each distribution. Every machine is a real VM, so you get stronger isolation than containers can offer. The same workflow runs on Linux, macOS and Windows across amd64 and arm64. No privileged system service is required and you never need admin or root rights.

Cubic fits a lot of everyday workflows:

- Spin up disposable VMs that are ready in seconds and easy to throw away
- Compare many Linux distributions side by side on any host
- Develop and test across distributions and CPU architectures
- Try or build software without polluting your host
- Run untrusted or experimental software inside an isolated VM
- Reproduce CI or production Linux environments locally
- Run local services such as HTTP servers and databases with port forwarding