A year or so ago I started working on a container based desktop compartmentalization tool that allows you to create seamless containers for desktop applications using incus and XPRA.
I initially made a post about it on Qubes OS. I loved the Qubes OS philosophy of isolating applications into isolated virtual machines. However, I found myself facing two main hurdles: I could either use Qubes OS and be limited by the heavy hardware requirements of the Xen hypervisor, or use KVM to create virtual machines but miss out on seamless desktop integration.
I built Incul to bridge that gap on a standard Debian/XFCE setup. The goal is to achieve a compartmentalized workflow without the overhead of virtual machines. To achieve this I built this tool on Incus Containers to provide the application isolation and XPRA to provide seamless access to applications within those containers. Incul also handles the injection of container desktop entries to the host menu.
Who is this for?
- If you’re like me and prefer a sand-boxed workflow where different activities stay in their own isolated environment.
- If you currently use separate VMs for every project just to avoid dependency conflicts Incul offers the same isolation with much less overhead.
- If you want a safe, disposable environment to test new applications without cluttering or risking your host OS.
- If you love the philosophy of Qubes OS but your laptop isn't beefy enough to handle multiple Xen-based virtual machines running at once.
I just put out a new release at https://github.com/munabedan/incul if you wanna check it out.
> PS: Spin up a fresh debian13 XFCE install on KVM and install to try it out. Incul changes your host menu config.
The README has the full setup instructions and command reference for those interested. Feedback and contributions are always welcome!
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