I think people use the word Docker to mean "produce an OCI-compliant image that a CRI runtime can run".

Podman does the same thing, as well as other tools. Using Docker to refer to something that doesn't use Docker is like saying that your Android Phone is an iPhone.

> Docker has a pretty terrible deployment story (...)

This is the very first time I ever heard such nonsense. In all companies I've been, Docker is a renowned problem solver, not only for production deplyments but also for local testing environments and deployments.

It even shines as a stand-alone barebones clustering solution with Docker swarm mode.

I’ve honestly not touched docker in years, but all of my prod apps run in docker. So it’d be paradoxical for me to see I don’t need docker, but I really want to.

Docker can be considered a deployment tool. You package your application in an image and run said image. Development and test of that application does not have to be in a docker image.

Nor does deployment. Podman, Rancher, etc all solve those challenges without relying on Docker and with Docker changing their licensing I don't think it will be the de-facto tool in a couple years. There will be others that will replace it.

Docker has become synonymous with OCI images, and my comment was exactly in that context (or at least state of mind) - I should have stated that as well.

> So it’d be paradoxical for me to see I don’t need docker, but I really want to.

I find it quite amusing that projects that try to position themselves as Docker alternatives end up basing their presentation on how their project can be used just like Docker, down to Docker's choice of command line interface.