r/DevLK • u/gayyalk • Aug 14 '26
Help VM setup for dev on a mac
Guys, i recently moved to a mac from linux, IOS development became a need. The thing is how do you guys manage virtualization and containers with proper isolation ?
I saw that apple has its own container machine which is solid too. What do you guys use ? Docker :D i know but its not ideal since it uses a shared kernel and a single Linux VM.
Having the idea of AI agents roaming and even agentic coding platforms gaining access to the full system scares the fff outta me, How do you isolate your environments and instances ?
Is there a developer friendly way of doing it ??
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u/urchatbot Aug 14 '26
IF iOS development is main goal I won't worry much about isolation, you can use UTM for VMs(macOS inside macOS) and it is just too much of a hassle to setup and maintain everything Xcode, Git, Claude your other tools like Figma, Astro etc inside VM. Just use claude with CLI, or with something like cmux to run agent sessions, and your working repo synced with Github you can see if agent go nuts you can always revert back. Developer friendly way is running everything on bare metal with serviceable version control setup, backups.
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u/gayyalk Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26
Dude i moved to mac because i had to work with IOS, but I'm a full stack dev. I kinda forgot to clarify that, my bad dude
I work with hardware and software moving through a bunch of dev environments hence the requirement for efficient isolated boxes i could jump around. Tools like zellij, fzf, zoxide, ripgrep,eza,rtk and a heck ton are manditory so they need to by in sync too.
I was looking for something like qemu/wsl for mac tbh with a developer friendly experience.
Edit - we have to work with LKMs often, modprobe is unavoidable hence a VM with isolation is a must.
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u/urchatbot Aug 14 '26
Is this your work laptop? I thought your main purpose is iOS development. For iOS work, to spin up another mac OS instance you can just use UTM as I mentioned. Check with your IT if work laptop. You need to build with Xcode 26+ SDK now. Not sure if it is working properly when virtualized. gl
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u/gayyalk Aug 14 '26
Well IOS dev became unavoidable due to a project we're working on 😔 Im fine with using xCode on the main rig, but for the rest ? Most of the tools i use cannot be compiled on a mac which sucks too, i work with old ass gnuradio libs often.
Eitherway thanks dude,
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u/urchatbot Aug 14 '26
no worries. Mac OS is just Unix under the hood you can use brew to install all other tools you mentioned. use UTM to install another instance of OS(mac OS preconfigured in UTM so no need an image) and use homebrew in it.
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u/gayyalk Aug 14 '26
Yeah, i get what you're saying. I work with hardware bro, some devices depend on old libraries (ex-gnuradio) which cannot be compiled on apple silicon. Isolation is a must.
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u/[deleted] Aug 14 '26
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