89luca89/distrobox
Use any linux distribution inside your terminal. Enable both backward and forward compatibility with software and freedom to use whatever distribution you’re more comfortable with. Mirror available at: https://gitlab.com/89luca89/distrobox observed · 2026-08-28
Health v2 · maintenance only
92/100
- Activity 98
- Release rhythm 81
- Longevity 100
Flags: no_readme
How is this computed?
round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10) — computed 2026-09-02. Adoption (stars, forks) is never an input.
- gap_med: 20
- age_days: 1749
- days_rel: 128
- days_push: 12
- n_releases_24m: 10
Adoption not part of the score
12906 stars · 538 forks observed · 2026-08-28
What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-29, confidence not recorded
Distrobox is a command-line tool that uses podman, docker, or lilipod to create tightly integrated containers of any Linux distribution inside your terminal. It shares the host's HOME, storage, USB devices, graphics (X11/Wayland), and audio, letting you run software from any distro seamlessly on your host.
Use cases
- run a different linux distribution inside my terminal
- install packages not available on my host distro like fedora silverblue or steam deck
- run older software for backward compatibility in a container
- export apps from a container to my host application menu
- create reproducible dev environments from a distrobox.ini manifest
- use containers without root on an immutable or locked-down system
- run graphical linux apps from a container with wayland or x11
When to choose
- you want any distro's package manager and software tightly integrated with your host
- you're on an immutable distro (Fedora Silverblue, SteamOS, openSUSE MicroOS) and need flexible package installs
- you need backward/forward compatibility for software across distro versions
- you want rootless, sudo-free container usage sharing home and devices
- you want declarative batch creation of containers via distrobox assemble
When to avoid
- you need isolated, non-integrated containers with separate filesystems and users
- you're deploying production services or microservices rather than interactive CLI/GUI tooling
- you need macOS or Windows support - it's Linux-only
- you want full VM isolation or a different kernel than the host
Facets
cli-tool · maturity stable
container-runtime developer-tools cli self-hosted developer-tools operating-systems cross-platform cli containers podman docker immutable-distros steam-deck rootless-containers shell-integration posix-sh command-line linux
8 sources
- homepage: https://distrobox.it/ · fetched 2026-08-29 · 6ea652f30d3e
- site_page: https://distrobox.it/posts/steamdeck_guide · fetched 2026-08-29 · a28f6d1be856
- site_page: https://distrobox.it/posts/install_podman_static · fetched 2026-08-29 · b3afdc827300
- site_page: https://distrobox.it/posts/install_lilipod_static · fetched 2026-08-29 · 2b45ed0a338b
- site_page: https://distrobox.it/compatibility · fetched 2026-08-29 · 81e511f519fc
- site_page: https://distrobox.it/useful_tips · fetched 2026-08-29 · 56dbb17abf7b
- site_page: https://distrobox.it/usage/usage · fetched 2026-08-29 · dea6ae10b115
- site_page: https://distrobox.it/usage/distrobox-assemble · fetched 2026-08-29 · e1fd9cc38e8b
Member repositories
| Repository | Role | Health v2 |
|---|---|---|
| 89luca89/distrobox | main | 92 |
For agents
markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="89luca89/distrobox")
Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00 · Report a problem