Gnome Boxes for Whonix

Development
1

For linux users, avoiding the VirtualBox/Oracle issues while being easier than KVM?

Ideally, leaving VirtualBox for Windows users only?

2

Have you tried it?

3

This.
I never used Gnome Boxes, but from what I read it is more less just a nice frontend for libvirt + QEMU + KVM and works similar to virt-manager. So I don’t know what you mean with “easier than KVM”.
I’m not sure, but if it uses mostly the same stuff under the hood, the xml’s for KVM might actually work in the same way as for virt-manager.

4

So, larger attack surface?

5

Easier to setup and use for a not very technical user (read: average).

https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Boxes

While virt-manager does a very good job as a virtual machine management software, it’s very much tailored for system administration and virtual machines. Boxes, on the other hand, is targeted towards a typical desktop end-user who wants either a very safe and easy way to try out new operating systems or new (potentially unstable) versions of her/his favorite operating system(s), or needs to connect to a remote machine (home-office connection being a typical use-case).

6

I’ve talked with the devs before about an appliance import feature. Without it there is no easier way to import the Whonix xml settings other than commandline I’m afraid.

For this frontend no. The daemons that interact with the VMs are those that libvirt has with same process confinement. Other front-ends like aqemu and promox are a different story.