GNOME Boxes
A simple GNOME desktop app for creating and running virtual machines on Linux.
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About GNOME Boxes
GNOME Boxes aims to make virtualization simple. Pick an operating system and Boxes can download it and install it automatically, including CentOS Stream, Debian, Fedora, Microsoft Windows, openSUSE, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Ubuntu, or build a VM from an image in a few clicks.
It supports snapshots, resource limits for memory and storage, USB redirection, a shared clipboard, shared folders, drag-and-drop file sharing, automatic display resizing and 3D acceleration for some systems. It suits Linux desktop users who want to test another OS without configuring a full hypervisor.
Strengths
- Downloads and installs common operating systems automatically
- Snapshots, shared folders and a shared clipboard
- USB redirection into virtual machines
- Minimal setup compared with full hypervisor managers
Limitations
- Linux only
- Fewer advanced settings than dedicated VM managers
- 3D acceleration only for some guest systems
Details
- Pricing
- FreeFree and open source, part of the GNOME project.
- License
- Open source, license not stated
- Developer
- The GNOME Project
- Platforms
- Linux
- How it runs
- Downloadable app
- Account
- Not required
- Works offline
- Yes
- Best suited for
- Linux desktop users who want to try another OS quickly
- Categories
- Virtual machines
- Last verified
- Added
- Provenance
- Facts checked against the developer's own pages and store listings, 1 sources on file.
Alternatives to GNOME Boxes
Compare allSoftware that can replace GNOME Boxes for an important use case, and what changes if you switch.
Virtual Machine Manager
The standard desktop front end for KVM on Linux, plus the command line tools that go with it.
Virtual Machine Manager offers more control over KVM guests, remote libvirt hosts over SSH and command line tools, but storage pools and networks assume libvirt knowledge.
VirtualBox
The free desktop hypervisor most people start with: run Windows, Linux or BSD in a window on the machine you already have.
VirtualBox runs on Windows, macOS and Linux with snapshots and shared folders, but it uses its own kernel modules on Linux that can break after system updates.
Quickgui
A graphical desktop front end for Quickemu that downloads operating systems and launches virtual machines.
Quickgui is a graphical front end for Quickemu that downloads systems and creates VMs on Linux and macOS, but it depends on Quickemu and QEMU being installed.
Quickemu
Downloads an operating system and builds a properly configured QEMU virtual machine from one short config file.
Quickemu builds QEMU virtual machines from a short config file with automatic image downloads, covering macOS, Windows and BSD guests, but it is used from the command line.
VMware Workstation Pro
Type-2 hypervisor for running virtual machines on Windows and Linux desktops.
VMware Workstation Pro adds mature snapshots, cloning, nested virtualisation and networking on Windows and Linux, but it is closed source and free only for personal use.
Multipass
Canonical's tool for launching a fresh Ubuntu virtual machine with one command, on Windows, macOS or Linux.
Multipass launches Ubuntu virtual machines with one command on Windows, macOS or Linux, but it is Ubuntu-focused rather than built for trying other operating systems.
GNOME Boxes as an alternative
Listings that name GNOME Boxes as an alternative.
Windows (dockur)
A Docker container that downloads, installs and runs Windows inside a KVM-accelerated virtual machine.
GNOME Boxes is a graphical Linux desktop app that downloads and installs common systems automatically, with USB redirection and shared folders, but no container-based management.
Similar software
Related functionality, not necessarily a direct replacement.
QEMU
The machine emulator and virtualiser that most of the Linux virtualisation stack is built on.
KVM
The Linux kernel's built-in hypervisor for hardware-accelerated virtual machines.
libvirt
A toolkit, daemon and API for managing KVM, QEMU, Xen, LXC and other virtualization platforms.
SPICE
An open source remote display system and guest tools for interacting with virtual machines.
Lima
Launches Linux virtual machines from the command line on macOS, Linux and Windows, with file sharing and port forwarding set up automatically.
