Earlier quoted context omitted.
I actually like the idea of Docker as a better systemd (or rather, the interface is better). No bespoke file format, programmable API, no need to google for the right journalctl switches, and then of course the advantages of containers and images over processes and system packages. I’m not suggesting everything should be a container nor that docker is the ideal implementation, but it certainly points in the right dir…
Last time i did look into docker it couldn't even tell if a service is up or still starting and there were all kinds of weird hacks around that like "is something listening on the configured port". Did that improve?
Maybe it already has something like this, but I feel like systemd could provide an API endpoint for applications to send a simple status when they are "ready" - at which point it would be up to the developers to provide that at the right time.