--- title: Cumulus Linux (As We Know It) Is Gone « ipSpace.net blog description: NVIDIA has quietly discontinued Cumulus VX as a standalone downloadable image in the Cumulus Linux 5.13 release notes, instead requiring users to use NVIDIA... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/cumulus-linux-as-we-know-it-is-gone-ipspace-net-blog-3tpvkkvwo twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Cumulus Linux (As We Know It) Is Gone « ipSpace.net blog | daily.dev og:description: NVIDIA has quietly discontinued Cumulus VX as a standalone downloadable image in the Cumulus Linux 5.13 release notes, instead requiring users to use NVIDIA... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/cumulus-linux-as-we-know-it-is-gone-ipspace-net-blog-3tpvkkvwo og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/3tpVkKvWO.png og:image:alt: Cumulus Linux (As We Know It) Is Gone « ipSpace.net blog og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Cumulus Linux (As We Know It) Is Gone « ipSpace.net blog **[ipSpace.net Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/ipspace)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary NVIDIA has quietly discontinued Cumulus VX as a standalone downloadable image in the Cumulus Linux 5.13 release notes, instead requiring users to use NVIDIA AIR — a cloud-hosted, GUI-based data center simulation platform. A later update notes that newer Cumulus VX images are now accessible again, but only to customers with active support contracts. The author criticizes this move as worse than Cisco's approach, noting that most networking vendors provide freely downloadable VM images. The post laments the decline of the original Cumulus Networks vision, contrasting it with competitors like Juniper (which eventually made images freely downloadable) and Cisco (which released CML). Community commenters echo the frustration, calling it demoralizing for the networking industry. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What happened to Cumulus VX in Cumulus Linux 5.13? NVIDIA stopped releasing Cumulus VX as a standalone downloadable image starting with Cumulus Linux 5.13. Users are now directed to use NVIDIA AIR, a cloud-hosted data center simulation platform, to simulate a Cumulus Linux switch. Newer VX images were later made available again, but only to customers with an active NVIDIA support contract. _Network engineers evaluating Cumulus Linux alternatives track moves like this on daily.dev._ ### What is NVIDIA AIR and what does it replace? NVIDIA AIR is a cloud-hosted, data center simulation platform designed to behave like a real-world production environment, enabling users to create a digital twin of their IT infrastructure. It replaces the freely downloadable Cumulus VX standalone VM image, which NVIDIA discontinued as of Cumulus Linux 5.13. Its key differentiator is ASIC emulation for high-fidelity network behavior verification without dedicated hardware. _Engineers choosing between network simulation tools find vendor comparisons like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [The cloud native era killed VMware's lock-in. 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