We don't plan on "keeping it that way". Disk clutter after lots of builds is a problem which we're very much addressing. It's specifically a top-level docker clean command that I'm not a fan of, because it doesn't capture a clear intent - what are you cleaning, and who determines what should be kept and what shouldn't? In general I like to avoid Docker having to guess what you want - the proverbial "magic".

A few notes:

* The reason Docker can clutter your disk is because we made an explicit tradeoff: it's better to keep too much data than to remove too much. That is why we're able to say "yes, you can run a database on Docker. Neither the container nor its data will be removed, at any point, unless you explicitly request it". Everytime I hear someone complain "there's too much stuff on my disk", I rejoice that I am not instead hearing "Docker ate my data".

* We have already introduced a few improvements. For example Docker used to keep the intermediary container for each build step (for later inspection of the build output, transient state etc). Now, by default, we don't.

* The most elegant fix, I believe, is to use naming and tagging as an indication of interest. If you are interested in keeping an image, give it a name (for example with 'docker build -t'). When an image no longer has a name referencing it, instead of keeping it around as an anonymous image like it does today, Docker can remove garbage collect it. That should take care of the problem elegantly and without requiring a new, clunky top-level command.

TLDR: the "disk clutter" problem is the result of a conscious tradeoff which we are glad we made. We have started fixing it, and there are more fixes to come.