Photo by Ray Aucott on Unsplash

OCI containers with Podman

Group Swim

Over the years, Docker container software has caused a metaphorical tsunami among software developers and, along with agile principles, improved productivity and DevOps working practices to speed code releases. Docker has had an unprecedented global effect on how applications are built and deployed.

Thanks in part though to an eye-watering rate of evolution in the industry, Docker is no longer the default container software. Some members of the commentariat have unfairly already read the company their last rites. However, in this article, I don't ring the death knell for Docker's fantastic container software, because in my opinion, it is far from receiving its coup de grâce. However, I do look at an alternative to Docker called Podman, its feature set, and some notable differences in its container run time relative to Docker.

Docker Dominance

The first version of Docker [1] was released March 20, 2013. Although containers had already been available on Unix-like systems for a few years, Docker's software allowed small units of code to focus on one specific process to run a single service or perform a single task. By deploying these small code units, software developers improved the portability, consistency, and therefore the predictability of the services and tasks they were running.

As Docker Inc. rode on the crest of their very large wave, containers were invariably the talk of the town. Containers helped shape how architects designed, created, and then deployed their software amid an unremitting level of cloud adoption.

As concepts evolved further, microservices gained consensus as the best way forward, which meant modern software applications were broken down into small, modular, and independently deployable chunks. Soon after, cloud native became the way to discuss complex infrastructure based on