Re:How containers became a tech darling, and why Docker beca...
by vidarh on Monday May 25, 2015 @01:41AM
(#9598803)
He might not be a Linux expert, but as someone who has admin'ed Linux systems since '94, and has used OpenVz in production since 2006, and LXC since 2007, I agree with his assessment of why people are flocking to Docker.
As a longtime OpenVz user it's a given that we have to migrate off it at some point. Until Docker, LXC or KVM were the viable alternatives for me, and neither appealed: LXC seemed too half baked, though the basic elements were there; KVM too heavy for our use.
Docker did appeal to me exactly because it provided a simple story around how to package up and distribute container images that made LXC simple (before they provided their own backend) and let us continue with containers instead of going the VM route.
With respect to the quote you give, it somewhat exaggerates how superficial the differences are, but not all that much: It is largely about how files are laid out and package management. But those are huge things because they pretty much define the whole system and how we interact with them.
Note how many projects out there are even trying to find ways of using Docker and similar to package user-level applications too...
As a longtime OpenVz user it's a given that we have to migrate off it at some point. Until Docker, LXC or KVM were the viable alternatives for me, and neither appealed: LXC seemed too half baked, though the basic elements were there; KVM too heavy for our use.
Docker did appeal to me exactly because it provided a simple story around how to package up and distribute container images that made LXC simple (before they provided their own backend) and let us continue with containers instead of going the VM route.
With respect to the quote you give, it somewhat exaggerates how superficial the differences are, but not all that much: It is largely about how files are laid out and package management. But those are huge things because they pretty much define the whole system and how we interact with them.
Note how many projects out there are even trying to find ways of using Docker and similar to package user-level applications too...