Multipass

Multipass provides a lightweight virtual‑machine manager that lets developers create and control Ubuntu instances on Linux, Windows, and macOS with a single command. It relies on native hypervisors—KVM on Linux, Hyper‑V on Windows, and QEMU on macOS—while also supporting VirtualBox as an alternative on Windows and macOS. The tool automatically downloads Ubuntu cloud images, keeps them up to date, and offers cloud‑init metadata to simulate small cloud deployments locally.

Typical usage includes launching a fresh Ubuntu LTS instance, listing running VMs, inspecting details such as CPU, memory, and network configuration, and connecting via a shell. Users can execute commands inside a VM from the host, stop instances to conserve resources, delete them, and purge all data when needed. Installation is available through snaps on Linux, a downloadable installer or Homebrew cask on macOS, and an installer for Windows.

Multipass is aimed at developers who need reproducible Ubuntu environments for testing, development, or learning, without the overhead of full‑size virtual machines. Its simple command‑line interface and integration with existing hypervisors make it a straightforward solution for managing local Ubuntu workloads.