These days, I use my Macbook Air more than anything as I am a college student that’s constantly outside. The only time I get to use Linux (and Windows) is when I’m back in my dorm.

Developing for Windows on MacOS isn’t a huge issue for me; through tools like Wine and mingw-w64, I can always compile and test my software for Windows. The same thing can’t be said for Linux though. I’ve struggled with running cross-compilers for Linux on MacOS, meaning I would have to wait until I got back to my dorm every night. That is until recently…

I discovered Apple’s open-source Docker alternative, Container, which runs lightweight Linux containers on MacOS. It feels somewhat like Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), which I have experimented with before on my workstation’s Windows partition. Nonetheless, I still use and prefer a Linux install out of principle; I prefer an operating system that gives me as much control as possible.

Ever since I began using it a few weeks ago, I have found the experience of being able to run Linux on my Mac to be satisfying. Even if it’s not as intimate as using an actual Linux install, I still enjoy the ability to compile software for it and run basic utilities that I miss on my Mac. I have tried virtual machines that I use SSH on, but I found several inconveniences with them: they take up a considerable amount of storage and the inconsistent NAT addresses meant the SSH address was never the same. With Container, I don’t have to worry about either of those, while enjoying the closest-to-home Linux experience on Mac. Here’s a few screenshots I took using an x86_64 Ubuntu container:

My Rust program that reports system information: Sample Rust App Running htop in the container: htop Mandatory fastfetch :) Fastfetch