nowfound

Life & fun · alternatives · 2026

BC

Bootrino.com enables users to boot and run operating systems directly from RAM on major cloud platforms including AWS, Google Cloud, and Digital Ocean. Launched in 2018, the service allows developers and system… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Prices are shown for the 1 we have checked on their own sites, 1 of them free or with a free tier. Bootrino.com – Netboot Run-From-RAM OS's on AWS, Google and Digital Ocean launched in 2018; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

  1. 1
    RunsOnfree tier, from $300/mo▲142

    10x cheaper GitHub Actions runners, self-hosted on AWS

    2024 · runs-on.com · its alternatives →

  2. 2
    Ocean▲205

    Linux server you can fit in your pocket.

    2016 · getocean.io · its alternatives →

  3. 3

    An application innovation platform delivering a comprehensive experience with tools to empower organizations to modernize and build new applications, accelerate AI adoption, and fuel growth.

    2013 · coreos.com · its alternatives →

  4. 4

    Windows 10 Credential Provider intended to simplify the process of logging directly into alternative shells to Windows Explorer. - NathanCastle/BootShellCredentialProvider

    2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

  5. 5

    Use BIOS ram hacks to make a SSH server out of any INT 10 13h app (MS-DOS is one of those) - benjojo/dos_ssh

    2014 · github.com · its alternatives →

  6. 6

    Userspace macOS translation layer for Linux ARM64. Contribute to wie-project/kakehashi development by creating an account on GitHub.

    Aug 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7

    A framework for diskless computing. Contribute to frzb/coinboot development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2018 · github.com · its alternatives →

  8. 8

    How often do you screw up the system so much you have to reformat the disk (without losing data) to fix it? Well, sometimes I do, and sometimes I can't be bothered to burn a live ISO onto a USB stick. There's initramfs, but it's hardly a pleasant environment, with network configuration and all. My go-to solution has typically been to create a chroot with busybox and a few utilities in /tmp, chroot into it, and then kill services that use the solid drive so that I can unmount it. That's an error-prone process, and sometimes systemd itself uses disk, so you can't unmount the drive despite…

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

  9. 9

    ohai! I've released Lightwhale 3, which is possibly the easiest way to self-host Docker containers. It's a free, immutable Linux system purpose-built to live-boot straight into a working Docker Engine, thereby shortcutting the need for installation, configuration, and maintenance. Its simple design makes it easy to learn, and its low memory footprint should make it especially attractive during these times of RAMageddon. If this has piqued your interest, do check it out, along with its easy-to-follow Getting Started guide. In any event, have a nice day! =)

    Apr 2026 · lightwhale.asklandd.dk · its alternatives →

  10. 10

    Hey HN, I’m Surya and I’m excited to show you WarpBuild! WarpBuild provides fast, secure `x86-64` and `arm64` Github actions runners. This speeds up your workloads by 30%, at half the cost, and takes ~2mins to get started. We’ve been seeing pretty good results since we opened up signups a week ago and I’ve shared some numbers publicly here [1]. Currently, we support linux runners for Github organizations (not personal accounts) and MacOS support is coming soon (~Jan). The way the runners work is deceptively simple: Runners are assigned to hardware that is ideal for build workloads with fast…

    2023 · warpbuild.com · its alternatives →

  11. 11

    Shuru is a lightweight sandbox that spins up Linux VMs on macOS using Apple's Virtualization.framework. Boots in about a second on Apple Silicon, and everything is ephemeral by default. There's a checkpoint system for when you do want to persist state, and sandboxes run without network access unless you explicitly allow it. Single Rust binary, no dependencies. Built it for sandboxing AI agent code execution, but it works well for anything where you need a disposable Linux environment.

    Feb 2026 · shuru.run · its alternatives →

  12. 12

    Bringing serverless to containers

    2019 · cloud.google.com · its alternatives →

  13. 13
    OrbStack▲170

    Fast, light, simple Docker & Linux on macOS

    2023 · orbstack.dev · its alternatives →

  14. 14FC
  15. 15

    An intuitive, versatile, and powerful home server operating system for self-hosting. Featuring a curated app store and seamless multi-platform support, it’s designed to empower your personal cloud on Raspberry Pi, x86 systems, or your preferred setup. - BansheeTech/HomeDockOS

    2025 · homedock.cloud · its alternatives →

  16. 16MG

    Hey HN! I'm Jacob, one of the founders of Depot (https://depot.dev), a build service for Docker images, and I'm excited to show what we’ve been working on for the past few months: run GitHub Actions jobs in AWS, orchestrated by Depot! Here's a video demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX5Z-k1mGc8, and here’s our blog post: https://depot.dev/blog/depot-github-actions-runners. While GitHub Actions is one of the most prevalent CI providers, Actions is slow, for a few reasons: GitHub uses underpowered CPUs, network throughput for cache and the…

    2024 · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    Hey HN! I just released go-nbd, a lightweight Go library for effortlessly creating NBD servers and clients. Its a neat tool for creating custom Linux block devices with arbitrary backends, such as a file, byte slice or what I'm planning to use it for, a tape drive. While there are a few partially abandoned projects like this out there already, this library tries to be as maintainable as possible by only implementing the most recent handshake revision and baseline functionality for both the client and the server, while still having enough support to be useful. I'd love to get your feedback :)

    2023 · github.com · its alternatives →

  18. 18

    Setup cloud server instantly, free, for life.

    2015 · its alternatives →

  19. 19

    Developer-focused cloud IDE to maximize your productivity.

    2021 · goorm.io · its alternatives →

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  21. 21AD

    Hello HN! We just launched a new feature we built at Depot that accelerates Docker image builds on your local machine in a team environment, and we wanted to share some of the details with you all. The launch blog post: https://depot.dev/blog/local-builds Depot is a hosted container build service - we run fully managed Intel and Arm remote build machines in AWS, with large instance sizes and SSD cache disks. The machines run BuildKit, the build engine that powers Docker, so generally anything you can `docker build`, you can also `depot build`. Most people use Depot in CI,…

    2023 · its alternatives →

  22. 22

    A step-by-step guide how to create a simple OS from scratch.

    2018 · github.com · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    Cloudron is a complete solution for running apps on your server and keeping them up-to-date and secure.

    2015 · cloudron.io · its alternatives →

  24. 24
    FygoOS▲4

    A powerful yet beginner-friendly NAS OS built for your data

    Jun 2026 · fygonas.com · its alternatives →

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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →