Users of KDE software can now manage virtual machines with ease.
KDE unveils Karton, an open-source virtual machine manager set to rival GNOME Boxes in the KDE Plasma desktop environment. Derek Lin, the project's developer, announced the latest venture in a post, showcasing the progress made and revealing plans for future development.
Aimed at providing a native and user-friendly alternative to GTK-based virtual machine managers, Karton leverages the libvirt API for cross-platform compatibility and Qt Quick and Kirigami for seamless integration with KDE Plasma. Key features include a custom SPICE viewer, snapshot support, mobile-friendly UI, and a domain installer that utilizes libosinfo for detecting OS images.
Although still in a non-production stage and limited to QEMU support at the moment, Karton can create, run, and display VM screens on a desktop window. As a Google Summer of Code 2025 project, expectations are high for further developments.
Lin's mentors on the project are Harald Sitter, Tobias Fella, and Nicolas Fella. The coding phase began on June 2, 2025, with a target for a functional application by the midterm evaluation on July 14, 2025, and a final submission on September 1, 2025. Future work will center on refining device configuration and expanding hypervisor support.
For users still utilizing commercial options for managing virtual machines, this open-source project offers an alternative to immerse them in a user-friendly, KDE-optimized virtual machine manager experience. Keep an eye on Karton as it progresses through its development phase.
This open-source project, Karton, built on Linux technology, aims to offer a user-friendly virtual machine manager experience, leveraging Qt Quick and Kirigami for seamless integration with KDE Plasma. It's part of the Google Summer of Code 2025, with plans to refine device configuration and expand hypervisor support in the future.
