In the coming days, the upstream Podman project will be releasing a major new version: Podman 5.0.  When we decide to change our major version, it is because of changes to our API API or how Podman interacts with users.  It is also an inflection point for introducing new technologies, setting new defaults, and for deprecating older technologies.  Podman 5 is exactly this.

The major piece of work that occurs in Podman 5.0 is in the podman machine commands.  Podman machines are virtual machines where Podman runs Linux containers on operating systems like Apple MacOS, Microsoft Windows, and yes, even Linux.  In Podman 5.0, we refactored our machine code to be more stable, efficient and performant.  Boot times have been reduced and the user experience of Podman machine has become more reliable.  And while there were inklings of support for Apple’s Hypervisor in the 4.x series, we officially support the Apple Hypervisor in Podman 5.  In fact, it is now the only hypervisor for MacOS. We have removed support for QEMU for MacOS.  And finally, we have introduced a new verb in the podman machine commands which helps users quickly reset their environment.

Consider this blog entry to be something of a teaser.  In the near future, new blogs will provide a deeper dive into Podman 5 and its features, changes, and release.  In the meanwhile, you can whet your appetite by checking out the current release notes.