[HN Gopher] UTM - Virtual Machines for iOS and macOS
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       UTM - Virtual Machines for iOS and macOS
        
       Author : eiiot
       Score  : 306 points
       Date   : 2023-08-31 06:53 UTC (16 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | tech5000 wrote:
       | I think what would be amazing would be if one day it is possible
       | to run macOS on an Apple Silicon iPad. This seems like it would
       | be something that many people would want, so I guess there are
       | technical issues preventing this. In another thread, the absence
       | of JIT support has been mentioned for example.
        
         | mbreese wrote:
         | Memory is another issue. There isn't much extra TAM on the
         | iPad. I ran UTM in my iPad Pro once and crashed it when trying
         | to use a VM with too much RAM.
        
       | sam_goody wrote:
       | Is there a way to use Vagrant with UTM?
        
         | ansonhoyt wrote:
         | There's an open issue [1]. A scripting interface has since been
         | added [2], and updated [3], so there's progress.
         | 
         | [1] https://github.com/hashicorp/vagrant/issues/12518
         | 
         | [2]
         | https://github.com/hashicorp/vagrant/issues/12518#issuecomme...
         | 
         | [3]
         | https://github.com/hashicorp/vagrant/issues/12518#issuecomme...
        
       | npad wrote:
       | If you're running VMs on Mac for a development environment what
       | you want is OrbStack: https://orbstack.dev/
        
         | stephenr wrote:
         | For a tool tooting its own horn with claims like the one below,
         | the lack of vagrant support is glaring.
         | 
         | > No matter the use case, OrbStack has you covered with
         | features that simplify your workflow and help you move faster.
        
           | kdrag0n wrote:
           | There's a feature request for Vagrant support:
           | https://github.com/orbstack/orbstack/issues/105
           | 
           | Hasn't been that common of a request, and honestly I've never
           | used Vagrant so not familiar with its benefits. People are
           | already using OrbStack machines and its "orb" command to
           | build dev envs with setup scripts, and cloud-init support
           | will also be added:
           | https://github.com/orbstack/orbstack/issues/38
           | 
           | I think cloud-init will be more useful since it's already
           | widely used for setting up servers, whereas Vagrant is only
           | for dev envs, but correct me if I'm wrong.
        
             | 00deadbeef wrote:
             | Plenty of companies use Vagrant. OrbStack's pricing is
             | almost as much as an annual Parallels license for each of
             | our devs. Most places using Vagrant will be using
             | VirtualBox on Intel, or Parallels on Apple Silicon. So you
             | haven't seen many requests because Vagrant users already
             | have a solution and OrbStack wouldn't save enough money to
             | ever switch to it.
        
             | sam_goody wrote:
             | We looked at Orbstack, saw that there is no Vagrant
             | support, and moved on.
             | 
             | I'll bet there are many other companies with a similar
             | thought.
             | 
             | Orb stack is too young to warrant piling on the tickets, vs
             | just assuming it is immature.
        
               | kdrag0n wrote:
               | Fair. Another part of it is that I'm more focused on
               | containers at the moment.
        
             | stephenr wrote:
             | As much as _I_ think you should support Vagrant in your
             | tool, that isn 't the point I was making - whether it's
             | worth supporting is something you need to decide for
             | yourself.
             | 
             | The point I was making is this: Your claim is
             | 
             | > No matter the use case, OrbStack has you covered with
             | features
             | 
             | But you don't support a common, cross-platform tool that's
             | been around for ages and is used for managing developer
             | environments - including running containers.
        
         | denkmoon wrote:
         | Can I make complex network setups with this? My biggest
         | grievance with UTM is that I can only have 1 network interface
         | on a VM.
        
           | kdrag0n wrote:
           | Can you give an example? OrbStack currently sets up an IPv4+6
           | interface linked to a "unified bridge" with both the macOS
           | host and other Linux machines on it, plus NAT to the outside
           | world: https://docs.orbstack.dev/machines/network
           | 
           | You're also free to create your own interfaces on the Linux
           | side, of course.
        
         | felixgallo wrote:
         | Note that the product will be $8 per dev per month for
         | commercial use once beta concludes.
        
           | mrweasel wrote:
           | Why does everything needs to be a subscription? I don't mind
           | paying, but I'm not signing up of yet another subscription.
        
             | kdrag0n wrote:
             | I get it -- subscriptions suck, but I've explained why in
             | the "Why a subscription?" box here:
             | https://docs.orbstack.dev/faq#free
        
               | NikolaNovak wrote:
               | Appreciate the transparency. Fwiw, I don't understand
               | from the FAQ what's your opposition to jetbrains model,
               | which has been universally praised for its friendly
               | compromise of user vs developer needs. As the other
               | commenter mentioned, a) subscriptions get too many and b)
               | subscription model means I have to keep paying forever.
               | It makes it crystal clear I am not buying and I am not
               | owning my tool.
               | 
               | (that being said, I always appreciate and recognize the
               | freedom of producer to charge whatever model they choose
               | to, there's no moral qualms here:)
        
               | kdrag0n wrote:
               | And maybe it is! We'll have to see how this all works
               | out. I could very well be wrong about that.
               | 
               | In my opinion, JetBrains' perpetual fallback model is
               | more of a psychological thing than something you'd
               | actually utilize -- at least I'd never consider staying
               | on an old version myself, but maybe that's just me.
               | 
               | I've also talked to other devs, who mentioned that users
               | staying on ancient versions because they don't want to
               | pay again can be a major support burden.
               | 
               | One thing worth considering is that I plan to offer
               | (optional) cloud services integrated into the app.
               | 
               | OrbStack is also relatively high-maintenance due to all
               | the components it bundles.
        
               | veidr wrote:
               | It's not that, it's like others have said up the thread -
               | the mental overhead of subscriptions is super annoying.
               | (Sure, not if it was the only subscription you have, but
               | it _isn 't_.)
               | 
               | I let Jetbrains lapse a lot. But certainly not when I am
               | actively using it. If I start using it regularly again
               | (which I do, intermittently over the years) then I
               | subscribe again.
               | 
               | But the thing is, that also solves the elephant in the
               | room that devs don't want to talk about: a huge portion
               | of subscription revenues comes from providing absolutely
               | no value at all to customers. It's people paying for a
               | subscription, being too busy to notice the charges -- or
               | worse, too busy to figure out how to cancel them even
               | thought they _do_ notice, and mean to.
               | 
               | And devs can claim this is ethical, because they
               | disclosed the subscription recurrence, and the
               | responsibility lies with the customer to track all their
               | subscriptions diligently, across all their platforms and
               | billing methods, and cancel them whenever they stop using
               | them.
               | 
               | And some people do that. But most do not.
               | 
               | So the other way to look at it is that subscription
               | software models are just a scam. A way to exploit people
               | who lack the organization, or have two jobs and kids, or
               | whatever -- and get money out of them without providing
               | any value at all. For months, or even years in many
               | cases. Of course it is great for your bottom line. But is
               | it ethical? Even if you think it is, is it a cool thing
               | to do?
               | 
               | I think both arguments make sense. It is debatable.
               | 
               | But personally, I would only want to do subscription
               | billing if I had some means (perhaps via opt-in
               | telemetry) to automatically detect when the product
               | hasn't been used at all during the billing period, and
               | not charge anything in those cases.
        
               | traceroute66 wrote:
               | > but I've explained why in the "Why a subscription?" box
               | here
               | 
               | No you haven't, you've just regurgitated the usual
               | argument made by people peddling subscriptions.
               | 
               | Its always the same old story, and charities do the same
               | thing when seeking donation subscriptions...
               | 
               | The person selling the subscription says "oh, but its
               | only $8 a month that's only half a Starbucks coffee"
               | 
               | Meanwhile, the _REALITY_ for the person on the receiving
               | end of the salesdroid is always the same .... "your sub
               | is not the only thing going on with my life bud".
               | 
               | And its _very_ true in IT, sub to this for $x, sub to
               | that for $y, sub to that for $z, and soon enough you are
               | "talking real money" as the old saying goes. And then if
               | you are expecting the company to pay for an employee then
               | that adds up exponentially in-line with the number of
               | employees.
               | 
               | So, yeah, subscriptions suck ... for a real and valid
               | reason.
        
               | rnk wrote:
               | agree with comments but a starbucks coffee is not $16.
        
               | jsight wrote:
               | TBH, I had the same issue with nestbox. I'd love to have
               | something like that, but monthly_cost*36 months is a lot
               | of money!
        
               | mrweasel wrote:
               | Fair, I should have found that.
               | 
               | Personally I disagree with the "Major version upgrades".
               | To me that what I want, you release a product, I buy it
               | knowing what it contains and what it does. My
               | expectations are that I get security fixes for some
               | period of time, but other than that the "no new features"
               | is a feature all on its own.
               | 
               | I might be in the minority, but I'd pay $150 up front,
               | rather than a $8 per month, knowing full well that I
               | might need to pay another $100 the next time macOS is
               | updated. It's not the money as much as it is the mental
               | overhead of yet another subscription.
               | 
               | Customers need to be able to keep track of their
               | subscriptions and after four or five that's it, you lose
               | track and the money just disappear out of your account
               | every month. Say that: Well the App Store lists all your
               | subscriptions... is missing the point, because not all of
               | my subscriptions are going to be centrally managed by
               | Apple, Google or some one else. Again, it might just be
               | me, but I believe that companies are losing out on sales
               | because they're not offering straight up purchases.
               | There's just no way to track sales lost because of it, so
               | it's not on anyone's radar.
               | 
               | Edit: I checked the pricing on VMWare Fusion, it was
               | release in 2020, it might have been cheaper on release,
               | but let's assume it's not, that's $199 up front, I'd
               | still be able to us it and I'm saving money. I can then
               | upgrade it for $99, but I don't have to, unless I also
               | upgrade my laptop to an M-series. So it's cheaper for me
               | to buy an objectively better product. I might even get a
               | discount if I buy bulk licenses or I'm already a VMWare
               | customer. I get why subscriptions are attractive to the
               | developers, but they provide no value to the customer.
        
           | portaltonowhere wrote:
           | Yup. And given how well it works already and the feature set,
           | I'd say it'll be well worth the money.
        
           | 00deadbeef wrote:
           | Crazy for what seems to be an alternative GUI for Docker.
           | It's almost as much as we pay for Parallels licenses so we
           | can use Vagrant on Apple Silicon. There's nothing "slow and
           | clunky" about these VMs either.
        
             | kdrag0n wrote:
             | I responded down here, but it's much more than an
             | "alternative GUI for Docker":
             | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37335646
             | 
             | Of course, you're free to build your own with a VM and at
             | least a couple months of full-time work to get the same
             | feature set, just like with Dropbox :) Not saying it's for
             | everyone.
        
             | jbverschoor wrote:
             | > nothing "slow and clunky"
             | 
             | You obv. haven't experienced the difference.
        
         | kungfufrog wrote:
         | Can second this, been loving it since I switched, has been
         | great. VMs and Docker in one!
        
           | kdrag0n wrote:
           | Great to hear! Quick question for you actually: what's the
           | value prop of having VMs and containers in one? I've been
           | having a hard time with that from a marketing perspective.
        
             | kungfufrog wrote:
             | Less tools and software to keep up to date!
        
           | avhception wrote:
           | Looks really interesting, I will try to see whether we can
           | benefit from it in our web-dev environments!
        
         | kdrag0n wrote:
         | Thanks for mentioning OrbStack! Happy to answer questions as
         | the dev.
        
           | alexellisuk wrote:
           | Is running a MacOS VM within scope of what you want to build?
        
             | kdrag0n wrote:
             | I don't want to say "never" to macOS or Windows VMs, but so
             | far my plan is to focus on Linux and its applications
             | (containers, Kubernetes, etc.).
        
           | 00deadbeef wrote:
           | I visited your site and don't understand why OrbStack is a
           | thing. It says it's a replacement for Docker Desktop but how
           | is it better?
        
             | kdrag0n wrote:
             | The docs have more info: https://docs.orbstack.dev/
             | 
             | And a comparison: https://docs.orbstack.dev/compare/docker-
             | desktop
             | 
             | I think you'll find something you like in there :) To name
             | a few: Performance, CPU usage/power efficiency, automatic
             | domain names for containers, access to volumes and image
             | files from macOS, native app, and more.
        
             | jbverschoor wrote:
             | It's a few things:
             | 
             | 1) Runs containers / VMs ("linux machines"). Here you get a
             | linux instance with access to your complete filesystem
             | (everything is mounted), similar to I guess WSL
             | 
             | 2) Full docker compatible + docker-compose
             | 
             | 3) As of this week kubernetes support
             | 
             | Everything is blazing fast to start (think 100-200ms).
             | Aside that, there's one thing that's awesome: networking.
             | 
             | Every container gets a unique IP. No more portmapping.
             | 
             | Every containers also gets a unique hostname (+ip) ->
             | testapp.orb.local
             | 
             | Every every docker-compose gets a unique subdomain ->
             | web.testcompose.orb.local
        
         | notpushkin wrote:
         | I'd say Lima and Colima should be enough for most use cases:
         | 
         | https://lima-vm.io/
         | 
         | https://github.com/abiosoft/colima
        
       | fooblat wrote:
       | I love UTM.
       | 
       | It works great for my needs. I mostly develop infrastructure
       | automation and configuration tooling and I run all my VMs in
       | terminal mode. The wide availability of arm64 distros and OSes
       | makes this easy.
       | 
       | I also use it to run a tiny pi hole instance when I'm traveling.
        
         | cosmojg wrote:
         | What's the advantage of spinning up an entire VM to run a local
         | Pi Hole instance instead of just setting up a firewall or using
         | a browser blocker like uBlock Origin? I was under the
         | impression that spinning up a Pi Hole instance is really only
         | necesary if you own devices which don't allow for such things,
         | like smart TVs and other internet-connected appliances.
        
         | rpastuszak wrote:
         | > I also use it to run a tiny pi hole instance when I'm
         | traveling.
         | 
         | That's such a good idea. I used to run one using a raspberry
         | pi, which got lost during the house move, so would love to do
         | that.
         | 
         | Is is better than running it via Docker, e.g. from the resource
         | usage pov? Do you have any good resources/tutorial to share?
         | 
         | PS. In pre-Apple Silicon times I used it to play with old
         | versions of Windows, but now DosBox seems like a better choice
         | for Win 3.11 or 95.
        
           | TimTheTinker wrote:
           | May I recommend a Dell Wyse thin client from eBay as a
           | replacement for the rPi? They can be had for around $30, and
           | they come with an 8GB onboard eMMC storage as well.
        
       | akerr wrote:
       | I use this to run pi-hole on Debian on my old Mac mini which also
       | hosts our network Time Machine.
        
       | newaccount74 wrote:
       | I wish Apple would drop the 2 VM limit for virtualized macOS.
       | 
       | UTM is really nice for running Xcode as a build server, but being
       | limited to two VMs sucks. I build lots of software with old macOS
       | versions because I still support macOS versions that Apple no
       | longer supports.
        
         | Alupis wrote:
         | It's amazing the level of abuse the average Apple developer
         | tolerates.
         | 
         | There's money to be made on Apple's platforms, to be sure, but
         | putting up with nonsense like VM limits and what-not is
         | insanity.
         | 
         | I remember a time when it was against the EULA to virtualize
         | OSX at all. Finally, perhaps a decade late, Apple grants
         | virtualization to the commoners and people rejoiced - Stockholm
         | Syndrome-esque.
         | 
         | Apple gets away with this not just because people accept it,
         | they welcome it.
         | 
         | Meanwhile, most other platforms bend over backwards to make
         | development easy.
        
           | newaccount74 wrote:
           | > Apple grants virtualization to the commoners and people
           | rejoiced
           | 
           | Nobody rejoiced. Everyone who virtualises macOS complains
           | about the limit. It's a shame, they made it so much easier to
           | create macOS VMs on M2 (Metal finally just works!!), but then
           | they crippled them on purpose (no iCloud, no App Store, max 2
           | VMs enforced by the virtualisation framework)
           | 
           | I wonder if you could go after them on anti-competitive
           | grounds? I'm pretty sure the machines that Xcode cloud run on
           | are not limited to 2 VMs.
        
           | Terretta wrote:
           | It's as if Apple's purpose is a "don't make me think" level
           | of end user experience and trust, and their assumption is
           | engineers will need to invest extra effort to enable that
           | priority.
           | 
           | It's not just Apple. Developer-experience focused web
           | frameworks make one time creation easier, at the expense of
           | users who run it every time. The priority is upside down.
           | 
           | Thankfully, for hardware, wallet-share shows there's money to
           | be made from giving users a curated experience at the cost of
           | nominal incremental developer effort.
           | 
           | And the resurgence of SSR (new old hotness?) shows the same
           | can hold true on the tech stack.
        
             | Alupis wrote:
             | It's not mutually exclusive though.
             | 
             | A developer can be allowed to spin up N vm's and Apple can
             | still provide an amazing end-user experience.
             | 
             | It's just a EULA thing... there's no technical reason. It's
             | "just because".
        
               | newaccount74 wrote:
               | They could just sell it as an add-on. I paid a lot of
               | money to have more RAM in my machine, I'd pay again to be
               | able to use that RAM to run more VMs. (I would of course
               | still complain about it)
        
       | phmqk76 wrote:
       | It's impressive for what it is. But after noodling around with
       | UTM and Fusion, I subscribed to Parallels, and it's on a whole
       | different level. I used it years and years ago to emulate x86 on
       | PowerPC Macs, and it's the gold standard. Night and day.
        
       | samhuk wrote:
       | I used UTM extensively when creating an almost-no-touch tool for
       | developers to setup their Macbook devices at the company I work
       | for.
       | 
       | There's really no other convenient way to do this. It was awesome
       | to be able to run the tool on a fresh MacOS install, test the
       | effects, make some changes, then do it all over again with little
       | fuss.
       | 
       | Thanks UTM!
        
       | jasoneckert wrote:
       | UTM has been a solid hypervisor for me for the past 2 years, and
       | it's received several great functionality and feature
       | improvements over that time too.
       | 
       | But perhaps my favourite aspect of UTM is that it stands for
       | Universal Turing Machine (arguably the best name ever for a
       | virtualization product).
        
       | protoman3000 wrote:
       | Doesn't have hypervisor on non-jailbroken iOS devices. It's
       | really a shame, otherwise I'd had my Linux iPad dream device.
        
       | alberth wrote:
       | OpenBSD
       | 
       | Anyone have tips on how to boot OpenBSD with UTM?
        
         | whenlambo wrote:
         | What exactly is the problem? I had no problems booting FreeBSD.
         | I don't think OpenBSD is any different.
        
           | alberth wrote:
           | You mind sharing the instruction guide to how you installed
           | FreeBSD within UTM on Apple Silicon.
           | 
           | OpenBSD won't even initialize on UTM/AppleSilicon for me.
        
       | CharlesW wrote:
       | This is a great reminder for me to get off the Parallels "Give me
       | $70 every year for absolutely nothing" train. Thank you _@eliot_!
       | 
       | Has anyone found a reasonably painless way to migrate their disk
       | images from Parallels to UTM?
        
         | TimTheTinker wrote:
         | > absolutely nothing
         | 
         | They do release new versions that maintain compatibility with
         | the latest versions of macOS, and Parallels Tools updates that
         | maintain compatibility with the latest versions of Windows and
         | Linux.
         | 
         | So not _nothing_... but I agree $70 /year is a bit much for
         | maintenance updates.
        
         | CharlesW wrote:
         | > _Has anyone found a reasonably painless way to migrate their
         | disk images from Parallels to UTM?_
         | 
         | These instructions may do the trick:
         | https://github.com/utmapp/UTM/issues/4927#issuecomment-16294...
        
       | COMMENT___ wrote:
       | Besides running Windows 11 VM, I use UTM to run Windows 98 on
       | ARM-based MacBook. Great for playing old games on modern Mac
       | devices.
        
       | JaggerJo wrote:
       | Used this to create a Debian VM on my M2 Mac mini. Works great.
        
         | walthamstow wrote:
         | With a desktop env? I have only been able to get terminal
         | environments working on my M1 MBP
        
           | hrrsn wrote:
           | Yes, the process is the same as any other Linux desktop
           | environment.
           | 
           | There are a bunch of VM images you can download at
           | https://mac.getutm.app/gallery/
        
         | sneak wrote:
         | What settings are you using to get 3d acceleration working with
         | full panel resolution? I've tried dozens of settings/image
         | combinations trying to get this to "work great" and have
         | failed.
        
       | _silicon wrote:
       | Too bad jit isn't working on iOS 17 because of the new
       | personalized developer disk images for debugging.
        
       | Transpire7487 wrote:
       | UTM is great for basic stuff but performance has been abysmal so
       | not really viable as a workhorse in my day to day.
       | 
       | Nothing beats Parallels on Mac, worth every penny.
        
         | bpoyner wrote:
         | If you're on apple silicon and the VM is x86, I agree the
         | performance is abysmal. I'm pretty sure this is just a QEMU
         | issue and not really the fault of UTM. If your VM is aarch64,
         | the VM performance is amazingly great and I can't recommend UTM
         | enough.
        
           | grav wrote:
           | I also experienced performance problems with Arch Linux ARM
           | through UTM. Parallels seems to perform much better for me.
           | 
           | One issue might be that only OpenGL 2.1 is supported:
           | https://github.com/utmapp/UTM/issues/4285
        
       | outcoldman wrote:
       | What I don't like about Parallels and VMWare, is that they push
       | all of those integrations between OS, like openings Windows from
       | Windows in macOS. Or opening some documents from macOS right in
       | Windows. I prefer to have VM isolated from my main macOS. So it
       | is always going through all configurations and trying to figure
       | out what I need to turn off.
        
         | TimTheTinker wrote:
         | Parallels has a single option in the Security settings tab:
         | "Isolate VM from macOS". It disables all cross-machine
         | integrations.
        
         | mavamaarten wrote:
         | I have flashbacks from when I had parallels installed, and it
         | would constantly try to open any file I double clicked with
         | Notepad on Windows.
        
       | markuta wrote:
       | I've been using it to run Kali Linux ARM edition for the Pen-200
       | course. And it works really well, everything just feels snappy.
       | My only grape is the scaling and hi-res screens is less refined
       | than for example vm-guest tools from VMware. But these can be
       | fixed from the guest vm itself.
        
       | JodieBenitez wrote:
       | Someone pointed me to Lima which is a bit like wsl2 for macos:
       | https://lima-vm.io
       | 
       | Not sure what is used underneath but it worked great for me.
        
         | lloeki wrote:
         | Either QEMU or Virtualization.framework, pickable on vm
         | creation.
         | 
         | colima is a layer upon lima that sets up a VM the easy way
         | docker-machine/boot2docker style.
        
       | chkhd wrote:
       | UTM is great, and once snapshot capability is added [1] it will
       | become my default recommendation for sure. Until then sticking
       | with Parallels. NOTE: An unofficial snapshot manager exists [2].
       | 
       | 1: https://github.com/utmapp/UTM/issues/5484
       | 
       | 2: https://github.com/Metamogul/UTM-Snapshot-Manager
        
         | princevegeta89 wrote:
         | As someone who would always practice the habit of doing
         | development within VMs as opposed to my actual system for a
         | number of reasons, I tried UTM and played with it for a long
         | time to host ARM64 Linux VMs on my M1 Macbook Pro, however the
         | file sharing issues plagued me - with the most common problem
         | being, having my shared folders disappear suddenly from the
         | guest VMs, and having to do workarounds to get them back, quite
         | often. Next, I tried VMWare Fusion, but it has the same
         | problem. After that I tried Parallels, which seemed too
         | expensive, so I jumped to Lima.
         | 
         | I am glad to have found Lima - it also is based on QEMU and
         | made bringing up linux VMs very easy and provided network
         | sharing out of the box. Now all my development lies within
         | these Lima VMs and I am happy to report I never had a problem.
         | I know I could do display forwarding if needed but I am good
         | with these headless instances for now (thanks to VSCode).
        
           | naikrovek wrote:
           | this seems like a perfect use case for NFS. zero network
           | problems to mess with anything (because it's a virtual
           | network between host and VM), it's very easy to set up, and
           | it should be quite fast indeed. 9p would be another option, I
           | suppose, though I don't know of any 9p servers for MacOS.
        
           | dingi wrote:
           | I've been using a similar setup for a while now. I just use
           | SFTP for file sharing. Never bothered to try UTM's file
           | sharing feature.
        
             | princevegeta89 wrote:
             | While this is a good alternative, some tools like git
             | clients and other things that I run on the host system
             | can't be worked out via SFTP
        
               | learn_more wrote:
               | Use sshfs.
        
         | naikrovek wrote:
         | APFS supports copy on write snapshots today, for any filetype.
         | I would think that snapshot features in UTM would simply wrap
         | that functionality.
         | 
         | as simple as `cp -c`
         | 
         | though if that were true, I guess it would be implemented
         | already.
        
         | greggsy wrote:
         | Does it support TPM emulation, and ansible/vagrabt?
        
           | galleywest200 wrote:
           | Looks like they added TPM just last month:
           | https://github.com/utmapp/UTM/issues/3082
        
         | plorkyeran wrote:
         | Hah, I was going to say that I've successfully faked a limited
         | form of snapshots using clonefile, and then turns out that's
         | what the implementation-in-progress is doing.
        
       | l72 wrote:
       | Work issued me an M1 MacBook Pro, but all my development is under
       | Linux. Linux has been my preferred environment since the late
       | 90s. While I find the MacBook Pro hardware to be nice, I find
       | macos clumsy and frustrating, and my productivity severely drops.
       | 
       | So, I run Fedora (aarch64) under UTM full screen. It works
       | acceptably well, and I often forget I'm on a mac.
       | 
       | I just wish macos would get out of the way, and not sometimes
       | knock you out of full screen mode.
        
         | kevstev wrote:
         | What specifically makes your productivity drop? I find having a
         | terminal running bash on my mac is more or less same/same as
         | being in linux. Occasionally the utils will not support a cli
         | argument I am used to, but that's more of a versioning issue
         | than a mac/linux issue, and one I have seen many times in my
         | career sometimes just moving between boxes within a company.
         | 
         | The biggest headaches, though they aren't that big, is really
         | about ARM vs x86, sometimes you will come across a package that
         | just isn't supported on ARM, though that is increasingly rare.
        
           | gorgoiler wrote:
           | I'm not the OP, but for me I yearned for two things: my
           | favourite window manager and a system whose source code was
           | easily within reach. I rarely use the latter and the former
           | is something I could be coaxed away from over time, but
           | really there's little reason to change from a free and open
           | system in 2023 when everything works so well.
           | 
           | I make do with being an XPS peasant compared to the beautiful
           | rounded rectangles used by my peers on the basis that my
           | machine is completely available to me in every way possible
           | thanks to _source code_.
        
           | postalrat wrote:
           | Any time the file dialog opens in macos my productivity drops
           | to 0 for a few minutes while I try to do basic things like go
           | up a directory or open my home directory.
        
             | AnonHP wrote:
             | I'd suggest that you lookup and learn keyboard shortcuts.
             | Going up a directory is Cmd + Up Arrow, going to Desktop is
             | Cmd + Shift + D, going to Documents is Cmd + Shift + O,
             | going to Downloads is Cmd + Option + L, Cmd + Shift + G to
             | bring a Go text input that understands ~ for home folder as
             | well as autocompletes on tab, and so on. While macOS is not
             | as keyboard friendly as Windows or Linux, it's not totally
             | devoid of it either.
             | 
             | If you'd like to have a more powerful experience with file
             | dialogs, the paid application Default Folder X [1] is worth
             | it.
             | 
             | [1]: https://stclairsoft.com/DefaultFolderX/index.html
        
             | bartekrutkowski wrote:
             | If you open the Finder preferences, you can add few useful
             | things, like your $HOME to the sidebar.
        
             | whoopsie wrote:
             | A little dramatic. Put it in list mode and you're good. Or
             | drag the folder you want into the window.
        
             | cshimmin wrote:
             | Cmd+shift+g brings up a dialog where you can type arbitrary
             | paths to jump to. Cmd+(up arrow) goes up a directory. Took
             | me way to long to figure these out, seems small but they
             | definitely are productivity boosters :)
        
           | l72 wrote:
           | I really don't like mac os's graphical shell. I am constantly
           | frustrated by how terrible its window management and virtual
           | desktop support is.
           | 
           | I also find developing on a mac is so frustrating. The
           | package management experience is just such a downgrade.
           | 
           | And then there are the apps. All my daily apps are open
           | source, and the apps I use just tend to work so much better
           | on linux then on mac os (if they are even available on mac
           | os!)
        
             | SamuelAdams wrote:
             | The defaults are terrible. I use rectangle for window
             | snapping, mos for mouse scrolling, and alt-tab for saner
             | alt tab behavior.
             | 
             | Why you can't toggle between different instances of the
             | same app by default is beyond me. But hey, we get more
             | emojis!
        
               | AnonHP wrote:
               | > Why you can't toggle between different instances of the
               | same app by default is beyond me.
               | 
               | I'm not entirely clear on what your requirement here is.
               | Historically, Mac OS X/OS X/macOS has had a different app
               | and windowing model compared to Linux. If you're looking
               | to switch between windows of a single app, you can use
               | the keyboard shortcut Cmd + ~ (that's Command and tilde).
               | There are also trackpad gestures to see all windows of an
               | application (swipe down with three or four fingers) and
               | switch.
        
         | bandergirl wrote:
         | What's stopping you from dual booting it?
        
           | ukuina wrote:
           | You can't dual-boot on Apple Silicon Macs, outside of the
           | experimental Asahi Linux.
        
           | cosmojg wrote:
           | In my case, their MDM software of choice doesn't run on
           | Linux.
        
           | SamuelAdams wrote:
           | Currently using Ashai on Arch Linux. The lack of Thunderbolt
           | support is a deal breaker, as I need to use external monitors
           | for work.
           | 
           | Still excited to see progress but I'm probably not going to
           | be able to use Linux on a Mac for another 12 months.
        
           | l72 wrote:
           | As Asahi stabilizes (especially with their new Fedora remix),
           | that is my plan.
        
         | aslilac wrote:
         | Asahi Fedora is supposed to come out in the next few days.
         | There's hope!
        
         | jerieljan wrote:
         | The Linux -> macOS experience tbh is really either about
         | putting up with macOS' issues and adjusting to them, or
         | patching things up with third-party solutions to make it
         | tolerable. Or a bit of both. I've learned to adapt to it since
         | it's a shame to miss out on the reliable battery life.
         | 
         | Maybe there's a solution out there somewhere that would let you
         | stay in full screen mode.
        
           | sangnoir wrote:
           | > I've learned to adapt to it since it's a shame to miss out
           | on the reliable battery life.
           | 
           | Is the long battery life a feature you use often, or is it
           | more of a "I'm glad it's there, just in case I need it"
           | feature?
        
         | petesergeant wrote:
         | How much of a performance hit would you estimate you take from
         | doing that? Seems like a nice solution if not too much
        
           | loopz wrote:
           | M1+ is quite fast hardware. If not for lack of hardware
           | compatibility with projects based on x86/x64, it'd be the
           | best option.
           | 
           | I think Parallells give you more, but I do a big window in
           | UTM over 2 displays which works quite well and doesn't break
           | rest of the OS X flow. Mic doesn't work, you occasionally
           | have correct audio output, but OS X audio daemons sucks so
           | it's a crapshoot if you get audio and where/how it's output.
           | You don't get 3d accelleration I think, but haven't tried.
           | It's not for games or Teams (neither is OS X).
           | 
           | But it works reasonably well for software that runs on arm64,
           | which on Linux may limit you a bit. But you get to make
           | things work either on OS X or Linux arm64, and the rest works
           | well. You may not notice much overhead compared to OS X on
           | M1+.
           | 
           | As with everything, you can make it work for you, but it's
           | not for gaming, CAD, some proprietary or limited projects,
           | etc. Should be fine for development and sysadmin stuff.
           | 
           | If something works on Linux arm64 on M1, it's quite well
           | supported you might say. So you get to weed out some fluff,
           | but also some nice things.
        
             | Terretta wrote:
             | Given the multiple perf/$ boost of ARM on cloud hosts (e.g.
             | AWS Graviton), that hardware compatibility can be put to
             | work for recurring monthly profitability at the expense of
             | helping OSS ecosystem learn that ARM exists.
             | 
             | https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/08/amazon_arm_servers/
        
           | l72 wrote:
           | I'm not doing any super heavy cpu workloads nor any heavy 3d
           | graphics, so I don't really notice any issues.
           | 
           | Surprisingly, the battery lifetime is still excellent.
        
         | mattsan wrote:
         | I would definitely keep an eye out for Fedora Asahi Linux
        
       | Kelteseth wrote:
       | Can't wait for Apple to enable side loading so my iPad will
       | become useful one day with this.
        
         | vuln wrote:
         | My iPad Pro is a pro consumption device. I want a productivity
         | device. :(
        
         | Pesthuf wrote:
         | Even then you won't be able to get good performance without
         | jailbreak because Apple makes doesn't let any third party app
         | use JIT.
        
           | vimy wrote:
           | That's the whole point of the third party app stores that are
           | coming next year. Apple will only be able to control apps on
           | their app store.
        
       | danwee wrote:
       | It only lacks support to spin up/down multiple VMs via a simple
       | configuration file (like Vagrant, for instance). If I want to
       | spin up a small lab with N VMs with specific private IPs and the
       | like, UTM is not the most dev-friendly tool. I think there's
       | place for some tool in between UTM and QEMU.
        
       | c-hendricks wrote:
       | Two things I love about UTM:
       | 
       | - The serial window.
       | 
       | - The ability to truly lock the mouse to the window.
       | 
       | I wanted to use it on my work provided machine, but when hooked
       | up to my monitor, the performance was lacking (21:9, 1440p).
       | Performance also felt the same across an M1 MacBook Air, an M2
       | MacBook Air, and an M2 MacBook Pro, so it felt like something was
       | up, not that the machine just couldn't handle it.
       | 
       | Sadly, Parallels was the only thing I tried that performed well
       | when connected to that monitor.
        
         | Damogran6 wrote:
         | Shooting from the hip, all of those CPUs have very similar
         | single core performance...the more expensive chips scale out,
         | rather than up.
         | 
         | (yeah, there's a single core speed improvement across
         | generations, it's just not earth-shattering)
        
         | loopz wrote:
         | Running Manjaro-i3 minimal edition quite well apart from
         | expected lacks. But I don't need 3d accelleration.
        
       | rcarmo wrote:
       | If only this was on the iOS App Store...
        
         | chaxor wrote:
         | Why? I haven't ever used the iOS store, but having a git repo
         | should be _far_ better as an option so you can verify that it
         | is made properly, and not infected with a little extra tracking
         | and such whenever it 's added to the iOS store.
        
           | TheDong wrote:
           | a git repo isn't that useful if you have to buy a $1000
           | device to build it. There's plenty of people with iOS
           | devices, but only linux laptop and desktop computers.
        
             | dwaite wrote:
             | My understanding is that JIT support for faster emulation
             | requires a developer debugging-related entitlement which is
             | not available in distributed apps.
        
           | latexr wrote:
           | By not being on the App Store, it becomes a significant
           | hassle to get it running.
           | 
           | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37334977
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | noduerme wrote:
         | yes, I'm confused... what's new or interesting in this post?
         | People have been using UTM for years.
        
           | xen2xen1 wrote:
           | Poster seems? to be a dev interested in Macs. So probably
           | boosting a favorite tool.
        
       | em500 wrote:
       | I realize that "for iOS" comes from the github project blurb.,
       | but I think that it's pretty misleading. The iOS installation
       | options are basically a jailbreak (impossible on recent CPU/iOS
       | versions) or semi-tethering and re-loading/signing the app every
       | few days.
       | 
       | https://docs.getutm.app/installation/ios/#summary
        
         | londons_explore wrote:
         | > jailbreak (impossible on recent
         | 
         | Just think about that. Apple has successfully made hardware
         | that they can distribute to 1 billion+ people, many of whom
         | have something to gain by jailbreaking, yet not a single person
         | has managed it.
        
           | java-man wrote:
           | ... that we know of.
        
             | sadjad wrote:
             | NSO Group entered the chat.
        
           | kmeisthax wrote:
           | This isn't because the software is secure, it's because
           | nation-state actors outbid both Apple and the rest of the
           | community for exclusive access to software vulnerabilities.
           | New vulns often don't hit the jailbreak community for months
           | or even years after the NSA has already used them to rifle
           | through your shit.
           | 
           | Furthermore, to achieve what the jailbreak community would
           | consider a usable jailbreak, you need to string together
           | several different vulnerabilities or bypasses into a single
           | exploit chain. Nation-state actors will settle for just
           | attacking iMessage directly, which gives them all your text
           | messages, but is entirely useless for loading unsigned code
           | or injecting tweaks into apps.
           | 
           | To make matters worse, the UK is mulling a bill that would
           | give them veto rights on security updates, specifically so
           | that their old exploits would continue to work until they've
           | bought new vulns.
        
             | londons_explore wrote:
             | > to rifle through your shit.
             | 
             | I keep pcap files of all my network traffic to protect
             | myself against this. If anyone has been targeted by the NSA
             | and can send me example traffic, then please do.
             | 
             | I so far haven't caught anyone doing anything nefarious,
             | but with terabytes of traffic logged it's a bit of a needle
             | in the haystack task. I keep the logs, because even if now
             | their traffic is well hidden, I'm sure future analysis
             | techniques will reveal them if they're there.
        
               | saagarjha wrote:
               | s/your/journalists and family members of politicians/
        
         | extraduder_ire wrote:
         | There's an app called reprosion that I've used in the past that
         | can do the signing on your iOS device and even automate it. (I
         | used it to load a semi-tethered jailbreak) The limit is 7 days.
         | The app itself doesn't have to be reinstalled, just the signing
         | cert.
         | 
         | I am very excited for sideloading to get implemented in the
         | EEA, since that'll make this much easier.
        
         | SirMaster wrote:
         | With an Apple dev account you can sideload apps that last for a
         | year FWIW. That's what I do.
        
         | zamadatix wrote:
         | Being semi-tethered is arguably less hokey than being
         | jailbroken if your aim is just to sideload apps.
         | 
         | It also works without all that but doing so is just the slowest
         | of the 3 ways to run it.
        
         | newaccount74 wrote:
         | I can't wait to see how EU sideloading will work. I hope they
         | do it properly.
        
       | vintagedave wrote:
       | I used this a couple of weeks ago to install Windows 11 ARM on
       | macOS (Ventura on a new M2), looking to replace Fusion. It was
       | disappointing:
       | 
       | * Integration tools like copy/paste between VM and host, or file
       | sharing, didn't work
       | 
       | * Graphics constantly glitched, often going to a grey screen.
       | There seemed no way to recover, and I had to force restart the VM
       | 
       | The drivers / assistant tools have a 2012 date on them.
       | 
       | I'm aware it's a free product and I have no right to expect
       | anything (and I don't; I went back to Fusion.) And perhaps the
       | situation would improve if I or others financially supported the
       | project, which seems a better response to issues :) Nevertheless
       | I went in hoping I could replace the commercial VM solutions,
       | which on Mac have required yearly updates that deliver almost no
       | new value, with something open source -- and I can't yet.
        
         | runxel wrote:
         | That's of no surprise, because OpenGL does not work. Pretty
         | useless, considering how many apps use that nowadays.
        
         | eppsilon wrote:
         | Do you have copy-paste and shared folders working in Fusion
         | (with a Windows ARM VM)? Last I checked VMware Tools did not
         | support those features yet.
         | 
         | Edit: The Fusion 2023 Tech Preview [1] installs the full VMware
         | Tools and supports copy-paste.
         | 
         | 1. https://customerconnect.vmware.com/downloads/get-
         | download?do...
        
         | fellowmartian wrote:
         | I use it as a really nice qemu wrapper, and if you treat it as
         | one it's amazing.
        
           | cyberpunk wrote:
           | But you can't edit any of the qemu arguments?
           | 
           | I wanted to run some risv emulation, and I need to remove
           | some device from the default args UTM has, and nope. Not
           | editable.
           | 
           | Unless I'm missing something..
        
             | t8sr wrote:
             | I think the VM has to be switched off, not just suspended
             | for the arguments to be editable. There are also some flags
             | that UTM insists on and won't let you remove, which
             | actually seems kind of reasonable - QEMU is really low-
             | level and it's possible to run it in modes where UTM won't
             | be able to connect to it.
        
         | kim0 wrote:
         | Maybe connecting through MS RDP tool would offer a better UX
        
         | donatj wrote:
         | Copy paste definitely works. I go back and forth all day. Did
         | you install the SPICE tools?
         | 
         | https://docs.getutm.app/guest-support/windows/#windows-xp-an...
         | 
         | I've also not seen any graphical errors, I'm not trying to play
         | games though. I just use it for basic desktop apps.
        
       | mschuster91 wrote:
       | Since this is essentially QEMU: does anyone here have a working
       | build of the QEMU guest utilities for Windows? No matter what one
       | tries, they're _all_ severely broken. Or alternatively,
       | _anything_ that can run Windows 7 x32 on an Apple Silicon
       | machine.
       | 
       | (Why? Because I need to run Samsung ODIN, which is windows-only)
        
       | t8sr wrote:
       | I can't say enough nice things about UTM. Especially if you've
       | ever tried using QEMU manually, you'll appreciate how much heavy
       | lifting UTM is doing for you. (It's basically impossible to run
       | QEMU "correctly" on macOS. It randomly crashes, issues non-
       | existent instructions, or freezes in IO for seconds at a time,
       | all of which are problems UTM doesn't have.)
       | 
       | Yes, I imagine there are fancier commercial VMs out there, but
       | UTM is free and open source, and it works great. (I'm not a light
       | user, either, I use it for Linux kernel work, and never had any
       | cause to complain.)
        
       | jahnu wrote:
       | Great project. Just hoping for command line attach/detach of USB
       | devices and we can use it in our CI setup for some stuff.
        
       | dfabulich wrote:
       | The biggest problem with UTM is that it works great for some
       | people, and works terribly for others.
       | 
       | Seriously, scroll up and down on the threads here on this page,
       | and you'll see a bunch of people saying "I wish I could use UTM,
       | but it doesn't work / is unusably slow" and a bunch of people
       | replying "weird, it works great for me."
       | 
       | My experience: UTM has literally never worked for me. I just
       | tried to do a bog standard Ubuntu ARM install on my M1 2021 Mac,
       | following the guide here https://docs.getutm.app/guides/ubuntu/
       | and it failed. I'm staring at a blinking cursor on a black
       | screen.
       | 
       | Sadly, the people for whom it works great can't really provide
       | any useful technical support for the people for whom it doesn't
       | work.
       | 
       | I even paid $10 for UTM on the Mac App Store, like a sucker,
       | hoping that I could get some tech support that way, but the only
       | tech support channel is their Discord, which is full of randos
       | saying "lol, works for me, skill issue."
       | 
       | My recommendation: Give UTM a try! Either you'll love it, and
       | save a bunch of money, or it won't work at all, like me, and
       | you'll just have to pay $100/year for Parallels. Parallels is
       | probably gonna just work.
       | 
       | If Parallels doesn't work for you, you can reach out to them and
       | talk to a person who can help, because they want you to keep
       | paying to renew your Parallels license. They're incentivized to
       | help you succeed.
        
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