{"id":8656,"date":"2026-10-07T06:48:32","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T13:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=8656"},"modified":"2026-10-07T06:48:32","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T13:48:32","slug":"vinix-is-not-a-linux-distro-but-it-can-run-games-docker-and-qemu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=8656","title":{"rendered":"Vinix is Not a Linux Distro, But it Can Run Games, Docker, and QEMU"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"vinix<\/figure>\n

How does an operating system that isn’t proprietary or powered by the Linux kernel manage to run Docker, you ask? Well, it would need features like namespaces and cgroups.<\/p>\n

That’s exactly what Vinix<\/a> did, adding its own implementations of those plus overlayfs<\/em> and seccomp<\/em>, allowing the stock Alpine Linux Docker engine to run on ARM64.<\/p>\n

It also runs QEMU 9.1.2, which can boot a second Vinix inside a window of the first, and for gaming, it can run DOOM, a DOOM 3 demo<\/a>, Gothic II’s demo via OpenGothic, and Minecraft Java Edition<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There are still some limitations<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

For instance, the Docker support lacks bridge networking<\/em> and iptables<\/em> rules, and QEMU runs on software emulation for now. Minecraft runs in interpreter mode on one CPU core, and DOOM 3 manages about 13 FPS under software rendering.<\/p>\n

\n
\ud83d\udea7<\/div>\n
This is early-stage software that is not meant to be used daily or in production environments.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Yet another OS?<\/h2>\n
\"vinix<\/figure>\n

Vinix exists to give MacBooks a fast, minimal, open source OS<\/strong>, with the project’s motivation being tied to macOS getting slower and bloated with every passing release. They are initially targeting Apple Silicon devices to eventually cover the whole M-series lineup, though only the M1 is supported right now.<\/p>\n

While Linux users have little reason to switch to it, Vinix aims for a setup without systemd<\/strong> and a kernel small enough for one person to read through.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, nothing runs in the background unless you start it, and the system sticks to a single init system, desktop, package manager, and binary format. The kernel handles memory manually instead of using a garbage collector<\/a>, so a cleanup pass can’t interrupt a system call or the compositor.<\/p>\n

All of it runs on a V programming language foundation<\/a>, which was picked for its fast compiles and small, readable design. The project doubles as a testbed for bare metal programming in V too!<\/p>\n

The security model of the OS is modeled after OpenBSD<\/a>, with pledge and unveil<\/a> available, though apps must opt in, and user memory can’t be both writable and executable by default. Verifying the bootloader, kernel, and root filesystem isn’t supported yet.<\/p>\n

It runs Linux apps<\/h2>\n
\n
\n
\n
\"\"<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

At its core, Vinix is a monolithic kernel booted through Limine<\/a>, with its drivers built into the image. Most of it is V, alongside some C and assembly.<\/p>\n

It features a native desktop built with V UI2<\/a> that renders through the framebuffer, with X.org<\/em> and Hyprland<\/em> sessions as options on ARM64. The developers claim that the OS takes up 50 MB of RAM<\/strong> after boot and roughly 1 GB of disk<\/strong> once installed.<\/p>\n

Alpine Linux, the distro behind that Docker engine from earlier, is lightweight and security-focused, and it’s built around musl<\/em> and BusyBox<\/em>. Vinix targets its aarch64 packages<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thanks to that, Vinix is able to run Linux apps because it answers the system calls they make, plus the ELF<\/em> format and musl<\/em> behavior they rely on, and those binaries run natively, without a VM or an emulator.<\/p>\n

New applications can be installed with pkg<\/code>, a command-line tool that pulls packages from Alpine’s aarch64 repositories. Apps like Chromium<\/strong>, GIMP<\/strong>, Sublime Text<\/strong>, and Gnumeric<\/strong> are known to work, as is Wine<\/strong>, the widely adopted compatibility layer.<\/p>\n

The catch is that this is limited to ARM64 and selected packages<\/strong>. Software that relies on a Linux kernel feature Vinix doesn’t have yet may not run properly.<\/p>\n

Additionally, support for the M3, M4, and M5 is coming soon, while GPU drivers are still a work in progress.<\/p>\n

Who’s behind it?<\/h2>\n
\"hyprland
The <\/em><\/i>Hyprland<\/em><\/i><\/a> demo for Vinix.<\/em><\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vinix’s history spans many years, with the first commits on GitHub dating back to March 2021<\/a> and the original kernel core being the work of Mintsuki<\/a>, the creator of Limine.<\/p>\n

Development then paused for around two years before Alexander Medvednikov<\/a>, the author of V, took over as maintainer.<\/p>\n

Mintsuki’s core covered the physical and virtual memory managers and the scheduler, but since the handover, Vinix has gained storage, networking, input, and graphics support, along with a Unix-style userspace and the Alpine compatibility we saw earlier.<\/p>\n

Get Vinix<\/h2>\n

You will find that the official website<\/a> offers a .dmg<\/code> installer file for M1 Macs, whereas the project repository<\/a> hosts two distinct ISOs, one for ARM64 (targeted at QEMU and VirtualBox on Apple Silicon Macs<\/em>) and the other for x86_64 (targeted at Intel and AMD systems<\/em>).<\/p>\n

If you want to test it on a virtual machine, the requirements are quite modest. Vinix needs at least 4 GB of memory and 4 GB or more storage space. Building from source is also an option.<\/p>\n

Vinix<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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