help! containers for dummies

[jeyf]

Today I just stumbled on something new at least for me:
A company; Docker Inc. makes a container situation to run in macOS. I understand multiple containers reduce over head by sharing the same OS. Previously i used VMWare Fusion and created a several virtual marches. The host is OSX and the guests could be another instance of OSX or Linux, Windows.

Seems containers are the rage?
Docker Inc. has had medium success running under 10.13.1 but not working on some10.13.2 builds

would a Docker container be good for:
-Replace several virtual guest machines holding a web page (OSX) and a mail server (Linux).
-My son is fear free on the interweb so i built his own OSX virtual machine. He has all his applications and likely dosnt even know he is in a Fusion virtual machine. A rebuild resolves any virus. Would this work as a container? Can a single container hold several un related applications like Safari, OpenOffice, VLC as a personal isolated work space?

 

[theluggage]

First, docker containers only run Linux. Unlike vmware etc. they take a single Linux vm and use a sort of sandboxing to make it appear as multiple virtual machines. As a replacement for a bunch of Linux VMs, docker containers can be more efficient, but they can't replace MacOS or Windows VMs.

Mostly they are used for hosting Web application servers, database backends, file servers etc. that can be controlled via a Web interface or terminal session, so you won't get a gui as standard (although I guess you could use X).

Probably Vmware is better for what you want.

 

[Roadstar]

First, docker containers only run Linux.

Actually Windows containers have been supported for a while now and the support has matured a bit from this post: https://blog.docker.com/2016/09/build-your-first-docker-windows-server-container/

 

[jeyf]

... docker containers only run Linux...

thank you your reply!

there seems to be a "Docker for Mac":
https://www.docker.com/docker-mac

 

[theluggage]

Actually Windows containers have been supported for a while now

I stand corrected - however, as I understand it, for that you need the "windows containers" version of Docker (which can only run Windows containers, not Linux ones) because all of the containers in a docker instance share the same OS kernel. However, things will get interesting now that Windows can run Linux binaries - which will eventually enable mixed "Windows" and "Linux-on-windows" containers sharing the same Windows kernel. Could make Windows the preferred platform for Docker development :-(

there seems to be a "Docker for Mac":

Yes, Mac is well supported by Docker. However, both the Mac version for Docker and the "linux containers" Docker for Windows work by first firing up a Linux virtual machine, and running the containers under that.

The main reason you'd use Docker for Mac would be if you were developing server stuff, such as web application backends, because its very easy and efficient to bundle up the needed software, configuration files, scripts into a self-contained "appliance" that can be quickly installed, uninstalled and upgraded on other Docker servers, without duplicating the entire operating system and application stack every time.

If you just want to run Windows or Linux apps on your Mac, or try out various Linux distros, then VMWare, Parallels or VirtualBox would be a better choice. Unless, of course, you also want to learn about containers...