from Hacker News

Container: Apple's Linux-Container Runtime

by jzelinskie on 6/9/25, 8:42 PM with 44 comments

• by dang on 6/10/25, 4:09 AM

  Related ongoing threads:

  Containerization is a Swift package for running Linux containers on macOS - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44229348 - June 2025 (158 comments)

  Apple announces Foundation Models and Containerization frameworks, etc - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44226978 - June 2025 (346 comments)

  (Normally we'd merge them but it seems there are significant if subtle differences between these)

• by jzelinskie on 6/9/25, 8:43 PM

  Container runs OCI (docker) compatible by creating lightweight VMs.

  This repository houses the command-line interface which is powered by containerization[0], the Swift framework wrapping Virtualization.framework to implement an OCI runtime.

  [0]: https://github.com/apple/containerization

• by 90s_dev on 6/10/25, 2:35 AM

  How actually is Swift as a Rust alternative? Is it feasible?

  The only gripe I remember with it is that all its APIs are weird.

  Like instead of normal names, you have Apple-legacy-names for methods/classes.

• by sverhagen on 6/10/25, 3:56 AM

  Is it smart to call the implementation after the category, or am I misunderstanding what is going on? Surely they won't be able to trademark this?

• by gardaani on 6/10/25, 5:32 AM

  I have been using lima to run Linux VMs on macOS. This new Apple tool looks very similar and I might replace lima with it.

• by zarazas on 6/10/25, 9:49 AM

  Will it be possible to integrate this with docker, so docker containers on Mac run more performance optimized?

• by slroger on 6/11/25, 5:56 AM

  I just need this to get a GUI and it will be close to perfect.

• by wmf on 6/9/25, 11:25 PM

  Should probably merge with https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44229348

• by punnerud on 6/10/25, 4:58 AM

  Does this enable running containers next apps to iOS and MacOS downloaded from AppStore?

• by spockz on 6/10/25, 4:57 AM

  Cross posting in the right place instead of the other thread:

  At first I thought this sounded like a blend of the virtualisation framework with a firecracker style lightweight kernel.

  This project had its own kernel, but it also seems to be able to use the firecracker one. I wonder what the advantages are. Even smaller? Making use of some apple silicon properties?

  Has anyone tried it already and is it fast? Compared to podman on Linux or Docker Desktop for Mac?

• by rcarmo on 6/10/25, 9:48 AM

  Not for iPadOS, alas.