# 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

Repository: https://github.com/89luca89/distrobox
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/distrobox
Homepage: https://distrobox.it/
Language: Go
License: GPL-3.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: centos, fedora, linux, containers, podman, development, suse, alpine, opensuse, almalinux, rockylinux, archlinux, debian, docker, posix, posix-sh, ubuntu, bash, command-line, tools
Last push: 2026-08-21T07:47:07+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 92/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 98, release rhythm 81, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 1749, "days_push": 12, "days_rel": 128, "gap_med": 20, "n_releases_24m": 10}
- flags: no_readme
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 12906, forks 538 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:00.064984+00:00)

## What it is
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
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: stable
- function: container-runtime, developer-tools, cli, self-hosted
- domain: developer-tools, operating-systems, cross-platform
- platform: cli
- tags: containers, podman, docker, immutable-distros, steam-deck, rootless-containers, shell-integration, posix-sh, command-line, linux

## Member repositories
- 89luca89/distrobox (main) score 92

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:00.064984+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:13:41.923058+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - homepage: https://distrobox.it/ (fetched 2026-08-29T08:09:49.309990+00:00, sha 6ea652f30d3e)
  - site_page: https://distrobox.it/posts/steamdeck_guide (fetched 2026-08-29T08:09:49.319701+00:00, sha a28f6d1be856)
  - site_page: https://distrobox.it/posts/install_podman_static (fetched 2026-08-29T08:09:49.324187+00:00, sha b3afdc827300)
  - site_page: https://distrobox.it/posts/install_lilipod_static (fetched 2026-08-29T08:09:49.326281+00:00, sha 2b45ed0a338b)
  - site_page: https://distrobox.it/compatibility (fetched 2026-08-29T08:09:49.317386+00:00, sha 81e511f519fc)
  - site_page: https://distrobox.it/useful_tips (fetched 2026-08-29T08:09:49.321575+00:00, sha 56dbb17abf7b)
  - site_page: https://distrobox.it/usage/usage (fetched 2026-08-29T08:09:49.328174+00:00, sha dea6ae10b115)
  - site_page: https://distrobox.it/usage/distrobox-assemble (fetched 2026-08-29T08:09:49.329878+00:00, sha e1fd9cc38e8b)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.