Docker Basics

Until now, we have seen the different advantages that containerization provides as opposed to running applications on a VM. Docker is the most commonly used containerization technology by a wide margin. In this section, we will start with some Docker basics and perform some exercises to get you first-hand experience of working with Docker.

Note

Apart from Docker, there are other container managers such as containerd and podman. They behave differently in terms of features and user experiences, for example, containerd and podman are claimed to be more lightweight than Docker, and better fit than Kubernetes. However, they are all Open Container Initiatives (OCI) compliant to guarantee the container images are compatible.

Although Docker can be installed on any OS, you should be aware that, on Windows and macOS, it actually creates a Linux VM (or uses equivalent virtualization technology such as HyperKit in macOS) and embeds Docker into the VM. In this chapter,...