January 1, 2026
Click VMs, clash in comments
Quickemu: Quickly create and run optimised Windows, macOS and Linux VMs
One-click virtual machines spark love, feature fights, and an Apple licensing panic
TLDR: Quickemu makes it simple to run Windows, macOS, and Linux in virtual machines with minimal setup. The crowd cheered, while power users demanded GPU passthrough and Windows automation, and a licensing debate flared over macOS on non‑Apple hardware—turning an easy tool into a big, messy comment fight.
Quickemu, a friendly wrapper around QEMU, is trending for spinning up “virtual machines” (a computer inside your computer) with just two commands. Pick Windows, macOS, or Linux; it auto‑downloads, optimizes, and shares clipboard, files, audio. Fans cheered: peter_d_sherman cried “Brilliant!” and hailed it a godsend for tinkerers. Power users instantly opened the wish list: westurner wants IOMMU GPU passthrough (letting the VM use your graphics card) and waved at tools like LXD that boast snapshots and live migration. mmastrac’s dream? Inject a PowerShell script so Windows installs with Chocolatey and dev tools—one click, full dev workstation.
Then the drama: fraserphysics asked if macOS-in-a-VM needs an Apple license, igniting classic Hackintosh anxiety. The crowd split between “it just works” and “it just lawyers,” with memes about macOS boot screens reading “EULA.exe.” Even dang’s link showed this saga’s been simmering all year. Verdict: Quickemu’s simplicity thrills, but the comments turned into a feature face‑off and a legality cliffhanger. People joked their USB sticks are now tiny data centers; others demanded GPU wizardry and one‑click dev machines. Quickemu makes VMs easy; the internet makes opinions messy.
Key Points
- •Quickemu is a wrapper around QEMU that automates VM creation and optimized configuration.
- •The tool supports a wide range of guest OSes, including macOS, Windows (10/11 and Server), Ubuntu, BSDs, and several non-Linux OSes.
- •Host systems supported are Linux and macOS, with nearly 1000 OS editions available.
- •Features include SPICE integration, multiple file sharing methods (VirtIO-webdavd, VirtIO-9p, Samba), VirGL acceleration, device pass-through, TPM 2.0, and EFI/SecureBoot.
- •Quick start uses quickget to fetch ISOs and create configs, then quickemu to launch; comprehensive docs and a 2024 reboot are noted.