Docker vs the container world: Techies rally around CoreOS-led spec

There was an elephant in the room at the inaugural CoreOS Fest in San Francisco this week, although like most such purported pachyderms it took a while before anyone would mention it. It was only when Twitter engineer Charles Aylward began fumbling over a tortuous description of "this other, well-known container system" that …

[smartypants]

Docker: A bit like Internet Explorer 6 then?

Docker certainly has wind in its sails, and as the article rightly points out, with the investment in place, it should sail on for years.

But as an engineer, I am attracted to the standards-based, composable CoreOS/rkt approach, especially given that we're seeing the thin end of what will eventually be a very comprehensive and commonplace technology stack. We've all 'enjoyed' monolithic de-facto platforms in the past, and it often ends in tears. It is a big deal to see the major players (e.g. Google, Twitter etc.) putting in their engineers to push this effort on. Initially I didn't think this would come to anything.

The only question for people interested in this area is how quickly this alternative ecosystem matures into a production-ready platform. I suspect it'll be a little while yet...

[auburnman]

A name like Kelsey Hightower is wasted in project management. He should be fighting crime as a loose cannon detective or masked vigilante.

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or at least an extra in Police Academy XIX

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[F0ul]

I'm still going to use Docker as the generic name for a container - although most people I speak to about this have no idea what I'm on about - its going to be a few years before containers are even as popular as VMWare in the world of business IT.