distrobox

Distrobox is a tool that lets you run any Linux distribution inside a terminal on your existing Linux system. It uses container technology (podman, docker, or lilipod) to create an environment running a different Linux distribution of your choice, and then integrates that environment tightly with your host system.

The practical result is that you can use software from Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, or dozens of other Linux distributions without switching operating systems or dual booting. Your home directory, external storage devices, USB peripherals, graphical applications (including Wayland and X11 windows), and audio all work inside the container as if you were on that distribution natively. This makes Distrobox useful when software you need is only available on a specific distribution, or when you want to try newer or older package versions without modifying your main system.

Setting up a container is done with a single distrobox-create command specifying which Linux image you want. You enter it with distrobox-enter. From inside the container you can install packages using that distribution's package manager, run graphical applications, and export those applications or shell scripts back to the host so they appear in your application launcher. You can also run commands on the host system from inside the container using distrobox-host-exec.

Distrobox supports a wide range of container images and has been tested on many host distributions, including the Steam Deck. The project is licensed under GPLv2, has documentation at distrobox.it, and maintains a Matrix room and Telegram group for community support. Configuration files let you define containers declaratively so a whole environment can be reproduced with one command.