> Docker is pretty much abandoning Swarm though, so wouldn't recommend that at least.

> https://www.bretfisher.com/is-swarm-dead-answered-by-a-docke....

The post you link specifically says swarm is not dead, in like the first sentence of the post: "No. Swarm is not dead."

It also says: "This was written early 2018. See my update to this video including Docker Inc. interview in late 2018, and then at DockerCon 2019 Docker again confirmed new features and commitment to Swarm. Most of their customers prefer it."

It's effectively dead based on usage. Just about every modern project uses Kubernetes for container orchestration while Swarm (and others like Cattle, DC/OS, etc) have decreased in popularity.

Here's a commitment from Docker's new overlords to support swarm for the next 2 years: https://www.mirantis.com/blog/mirantis-will-continue-to-supp...

Support doesn't mean usage. Kubernetes is where the community is, not Swarm.

What's a good replacement for Swarm that isn't as complex as Kubernetes? I like the platform abstraction and flexibility of k8s, it's just really heavy for many of my use cases.

I'd advise learning the basics of Kubernetes anyway. Managed offerings like GKE take away all of the operational burden so you can just deploy your app with minimal setup, usually just 1 or a handful of YAML files.

I hear good things about Hashicorp Nomad from people who've used it: https://nomadproject.io/

Especially if you're already using Consul, it should fit the bill perfectly.

I'd checkout HashiCorp's Nomad: https://nomadproject.io/

What are your core use cases? And would you imagine growing into more complex use cases that Kubernetes makes sense for?

That's a post from early 2018. As far as I know they continue to support and maintain swarm. To be fair though, I haven't been following it closely. I need to dive into docker clusters, but I still haven't picked the tech (k8s? swarm? flynn?)