{"slug": "lima", "name": "Lima", "category": "infra", "category_name": "Infrastructure and DevOps", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 7, "warners": 1, "score": 3.22, "rising": 1.35, "first": "2026-01-20", "latest": "2026-09-14", "why": "I think your usecase better fit with Lima -> https://lima-vm.io/ than microvm.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 1, "compare": 1, "warn": 1}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I think your usecase better fit with Lima -> https://lima-vm.io/ than microvm.", "icon": false, "domain": "lima-vm.io", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://lima-vm.io", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Lima"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 795257361, "item_id": 49703585, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49703585", "by": "jcastro", "date": "2026-09-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use `lima` and `llvm` every day with brew.", "excerpt": "I use `lima` and `llvm` every day with brew. It works great there's no reason to use distro specific tooling when you can use what everyone else is using.", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux VMs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Homebrew 7.0.0"}, {"id": 790955511, "item_id": 49434719, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49434719", "by": "jlokier", "date": "2026-08-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "some free and open source (QEMU, UTM, Lima, Colima)", "excerpt": "You can't run Linux directly on these. Asahi Linux supports up to M2 only. Linux runs very well in a VM on macOS. There are many good options for this, some free and open source (QEMU, UTM, Lima, Colima), some proprietary (VMware Fusion, Parallels). But Linux in a VM doesn't get access to the real GPU, so model performance is limited. Those running on the CPU perform well, and those needing the GPU don't. However, ma", "context": "", "use_case": "running Linux VMs on macOS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra"}, {"id": 766384960, "item_id": 47899060, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47899060", "by": "zdkaster", "date": "2026-04-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I think your usecase better fit with Lima -> https://lima-vm.io/ than microvm.", "excerpt": "If I understand correctly, I think your usecase better fit with Lima -> https://lima-vm.io/ than microvm. So, might worth trying it https://lima-vm.io/docs/examples/vscode/ a bit.", "context": "", "use_case": "VS Code dev container-like VM", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: MicroVM setup for VS Code Dev Container-like experience?"}, {"id": 760851281, "item_id": 47553205, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47553205", "by": "te_chris", "date": "2026-03-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If you're on linux and have kvm, there's Lima and Colima too.", "excerpt": "This looks nice, but on mac you can virtualise really easily into microvms now with https://github.com/apple/container. I've built my own cli that runs the agent + docker compose (for the app stack) inside container for dev and it's working great. I love --dangerously-skip-permissions. There's 0 benefit to us whitelisting the agent while it's in flight. Anthropic's new auto mode looks like an untrustworthy solution i", "context": "", "use_case": "VMs for containers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Don't YOLO your file system"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 775556131, "item_id": 48472258, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48472258", "by": "k_bx", "date": "2026-06-09", "stance": "warn", "quote": "We've used LIMA for now, was too much of a hussle.", "excerpt": "Most of my team's development happens on beefy desktop machine in incus containers per dev+project (so you run yourname-projname-dev). It has its own tailscale inside so you can open it like regular https website or give to another dev to check out \u2013 no need to deploy your branch somewhere, just run it. New dev onboard takes 10 minutes from zero to dev env with VSCode remote development. I would really love if apple ", "context": "", "use_case": "running amd64 containers on Mac", "switched_from": "", "story": "macOS Container Machines"}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["linux vms", "running linux vms on macos", "cross-platform vm fallback", "running amd64 containers on mac", "vs code dev container-like vm", "vms for containers"], "compared": [{"slug": "qemu", "name": "QEMU", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "podman", "name": "Podman", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "colima", "name": "Colima", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49681545", "title": "Homebrew 7.0.0", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49433292", "title": "Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48762098", "title": "Podman v6.0.0", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48469658", "title": "macOS Container Machines", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47898711", "title": "Ask HN: MicroVM setup for VS Code Dev Container-like experience?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47550282", "title": "Don't YOLO your file system", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"compare": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"warn": 1}, "2026-07": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 795257361, "item_id": 49703585, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49703585", "by": "jcastro", "date": "2026-09-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use `lima` and `llvm` every day with brew.", "excerpt": "I use `lima` and `llvm` every day with brew. It works great there's no reason to use distro specific tooling when you can use what everyone else is using.", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux VMs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Homebrew 7.0.0"}, {"id": 790955511, "item_id": 49434719, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49434719", "by": "jlokier", "date": "2026-08-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "some free and open source (QEMU, UTM, Lima, Colima)", "excerpt": "You can't run Linux directly on these. Asahi Linux supports up to M2 only. Linux runs very well in a VM on macOS. There are many good options for this, some free and open source (QEMU, UTM, Lima, Colima), some proprietary (VMware Fusion, Parallels). But Linux in a VM doesn't get access to the real GPU, so model performance is limited. Those running on the CPU perform well, and those needing the GPU don't. However, ma", "context": "", "use_case": "running Linux VMs on macOS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra"}, {"id": 780308994, "item_id": 48769312, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48769312", "by": "thewisenerd", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "so i keep having to fall back to lima for that", "excerpt": "podman's been great for me on macOS for testing stuff quick; which earlier used to need a whole limactl[3]/virt thing. you can set it up with qemu-user-static for --platform linux/amd64; i don't remember which i exactly used, or if official docs have been updated for it but looked something like [1] there is one sneaky bug in qemu that breaks uv [2] for cross-platform targets so i keep having to fall back to lima for", "context": "", "use_case": "cross-platform VM fallback", "switched_from": "", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 775556131, "item_id": 48472258, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48472258", "by": "k_bx", "date": "2026-06-09", "stance": "warn", "quote": "We've used LIMA for now, was too much of a hussle.", "excerpt": "Most of my team's development happens on beefy desktop machine in incus containers per dev+project (so you run yourname-projname-dev). It has its own tailscale inside so you can open it like regular https website or give to another dev to check out \u2013 no need to deploy your branch somewhere, just run it. New dev onboard takes 10 minutes from zero to dev env with VSCode remote development. I would really love if apple ", "context": "", "use_case": "running amd64 containers on Mac", "switched_from": "", "story": "macOS Container Machines"}, {"id": 766384960, "item_id": 47899060, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47899060", "by": "zdkaster", "date": "2026-04-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I think your usecase better fit with Lima -> https://lima-vm.io/ than microvm.", "excerpt": "If I understand correctly, I think your usecase better fit with Lima -> https://lima-vm.io/ than microvm. So, might worth trying it https://lima-vm.io/docs/examples/vscode/ a bit.", "context": "", "use_case": "VS Code dev container-like VM", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: MicroVM setup for VS Code Dev Container-like experience?"}, {"id": 760851281, "item_id": 47553205, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47553205", "by": "te_chris", "date": "2026-03-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If you're on linux and have kvm, there's Lima and Colima too.", "excerpt": "This looks nice, but on mac you can virtualise really easily into microvms now with https://github.com/apple/container. I've built my own cli that runs the agent + docker compose (for the app stack) inside container for dev and it's working great. I love --dangerously-skip-permissions. There's 0 benefit to us whitelisting the agent while it's in flight. Anthropic's new auto mode looks like an untrustworthy solution i", "context": "", "use_case": "VMs for containers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Don't YOLO your file system"}, {"id": 747094322, "item_id": 46693395, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46693395", "by": "jillesvangurp", "date": "2026-01-20", "stance": "compare", "quote": "I like Lima but it feels slightly sub-optimal for the job currently.", "excerpt": "I'm currently using a qemu vm for the codex with the --yolo flag but same thing. I've been also looking at using lima for automating the creation of vms. But it does a few weird/dangerous things like mounting the entire user directory read/write. Which kind of defeats the point. There are ways of turning that off probably but it does a few dangerous/annoying things wrong by default. But a simple vm and some automatio", "context": "", "use_case": "automating VM creation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Running Claude Code dangerously (safely)"}]}