What is Lima used for?

Lima launches Linux virtual machines with automatic file sharing and port forwarding, mainly to run containers on macOS and other hosts. It is a good fit for running containers on a Mac without Docker Desktop and disposable Linux environments for development.

Yes. Lima is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at lima-vm/lima and is written mainly in Go.

Yes. Lima is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

What is Lima an alternative to?

Lima is an open-source alternative to Docker Desktop and OrbStack. Other open-source alternatives to Docker Desktop include Podman, Colima and Podman Desktop.

Is Lima actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Lima was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v2.2.0, published on 21 July 2026. The project has 22k stars on GitHub.

Lima: open-source alternative to Docker Desktop, OrbStack

About Lima

Lima, short for Linux Machines, starts Linux virtual machines from the command line with file sharing and port forwarding set up automatically, similar to how WSL2 works on Windows. It was created to bring containerd and its nerdctl command line tool to Mac users, but it can host any Linux workload, not only containers.

Besides containerd, Lima can be used to run Docker, Podman or Kubernetes inside the virtual machine. Hosts other than macOS are supported too, including Linux and NetBSD. It can be installed with Homebrew, and the project publishes software bills of materials in CycloneDX format alongside its downloads.

Lima is written in Go, released under the Apache 2.0 license, and documented on its own website. It suits developers who want a Linux environment for building and running containers on a laptop without adopting a full desktop virtualization product.

Key features

Command-line launch of Linux virtual machines
Automatic file sharing with the host
Automatic port forwarding
Runs containerd with nerdctl
Supports Docker, Podman and Kubernetes
macOS, Linux and NetBSD hosts

Good fit for

→Running containers on a Mac without Docker Desktop
→Disposable Linux environments for development

Built with: Go
Tags: virtual-machines; linux; containers; containerd; macos; qemu; nerdctl; golang

Lima: questions and answers

What is Lima used for?: Lima launches Linux virtual machines with automatic file sharing and port forwarding, mainly to run containers on macOS and other hosts. It is a good fit for running containers on a Mac without Docker Desktop and disposable Linux environments for development.
Is Lima open source?: Yes. Lima is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at lima-vm/lima and is written mainly in Go.
Is Lima free?: Yes. Lima is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
What is Lima an alternative to?: Lima is an open-source alternative to Docker Desktop and OrbStack. Other open-source alternatives to Docker Desktop include Podman, Colima and Podman Desktop.
Is Lima actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Lima was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v2.2.0, published on 21 July 2026. The project has 22k stars on GitHub.