Multipass

Multipass provides a command‑line interface for launching and managing Ubuntu virtual machines on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It uses the native hypervisor on each platform—Hyper‑V on Windows, QEMU on macOS and Linux—to create instances that start quickly and run with minimal overhead. Users can initialise VMs with cloud‑init metadata, mirroring the workflow of public cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.

The tool is aimed at developers who need disposable Ubuntu environments for testing, development, or learning. It supports sharing files and folders between the host and the VM, and the primary instance receives special integration with the host filesystem and hot‑key access. Multipass automatically retrieves the latest Ubuntu images from Canonical, and a growing catalogue includes pre‑installed application images that can be started with a single command.

Multipass is open‑source and positioned as a stable, developer‑oriented solution for simulating cloud‑like Ubuntu instances directly on a workstation, facilitating rapid provisioning and easy configuration without leaving the native operating system.