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Podman Desktop celebrates 3M downloads

podman-desktop.io

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Re: Podman Desktop celebrates 3M downloads

#61

Post by OptionOfT »

osigurdson wrote: post #11

I'm glad they have podman desktop. Personally though, once I realized that I can use the command line version without it (unlike docker in my experience) I uninstalled it as I don't really need the UI / KIND, etc. For me the command line is fine and having something where I don't have to first shell into wsl is great (it just runs it itself behind the scenes). Of course, Linux is generally better for development imo…

I prefer to use podman/docker/rancher on windows because then the VM runs on HyperV.

Whereas when I install Docker in WSL it runs inside of my WSL VM.

Re: Podman Desktop celebrates 3M downloads

#62

Post by travisgriggs »

user3939382 wrote: post #54

After hearing about it for years I finally said ok sure I’ll try it. Swapped it out. CPU went to 100%. kill -9. Maybe next year. I don’t have time unfortunately to unravel stuff like this, it has to just work.

My experience was exact opposite.

$ brew install podman-desktop

… play a little …

$ brew remove —zap docker-desktop

Have been happy ever since. No more smells of enshittification. Now if I could just zap slack and figma…

Re: Podman Desktop celebrates 3M downloads

#64

Post by kstrauser »

shykes wrote: post #38
pxc wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

`docker machine` was deprecated in favor of Docker Desktop in order to funnel people towards paid licenses. But there's no real reason Docker on non-Linux should need a GUI.

Hi, I'm the founder of Docker. The decision to launch Docker Desktop, and deprecate Docker Machine, had nothing to do with revenue. Desktop was free when we launched it in 2016, and it remained free until 2021. By then Docker had a new CEO, a new board, and I was gone. So the two events (launch and monetization) could not be more disconnected. The reason we launched Docker Desktop (initially known as "Docker for Mac"…

I do so wish we could have those features without needed a desktop app for them. There’s never a case where I’d want to run Docker Desktop for anything GUI.

Re: Podman Desktop celebrates 3M downloads

#65

Post by CaptainOfCoit »

osigurdson wrote: post #59
CaptainOfCoit wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You absolutely can run docker on the CLI in WSL2. But again, they're talking about Windows, not Linux-in-Windows or virtualized Linux on Windows. Just because you can do something in WSL2 doesn't mean you "can do it on Windows", as much as you "can run systemd and Wayland on Windows" because you could run it inside a Linux VM...

Yes. For some the distinction between the two is almost nothing as WSL is pretty seamless. However, using Podman directly in your normal Windows shell opens up more use cases. Podman is of course running everything behind the scenes using WSL.

> For some the distinction between the two is almost nothing as WSL is pretty seamless

WSL1 yes, but not WSL2, which the parent explicitly mentioned. WSL2 is just virtualization with a fancier name, might as well use VirtualBox and similar at that point.

Re: Podman Desktop celebrates 3M downloads

#66

Post by willhbr »

miroljub wrote: post #44

Does anyone actually use Podman on its own merit? The only use case I encountered is people who want to run Docker without root or admin permissions and use Podman just as a drop-in replacement.

I use it over docker because it has a better license, more easily installed with system package managers (installing docker is a pain, IIRC), is rootless by default, and has a pretty transparent remote API that I can use over SSH to control containers on other machines.

Re: Podman Desktop celebrates 3M downloads

#67

Post by electroly »

osigurdson wrote: post #57
arcanemachiner wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> unlike docker in my experience You have piqued my curiosity. What does Docker Desktop do that the CLI cannot?

In my experience, Docker Desktop was needed in order to use the CLI in Windows. It seemed fairly heavyweight as well. Maybe that has all changed now, not sure. In any case with podman on Windows, no UI is needed and you don't have to shell into WSL to use it.

You can run the regular Docker engine inside WSL2 and run the regular Docker client on Windows with DOCKER_HOST set. This has been true since 2016 when we originally got WSL2, with the exception that we used to have to enable systemd (but no longer do).

Re: Podman Desktop celebrates 3M downloads

#68

Post by electroly »

danielnesbitt wrote: post #18
arcanemachiner wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> unlike docker in my experience You have piqued my curiosity. What does Docker Desktop do that the CLI cannot?

Since they mention Windows, I believe this is a reference to the fact that you cannot (easily) install the Docker CLI without Docker Desktop. Podman does not have this issue.

Docker publishes the Docker CLI for Windows directly, the same as every other platform. You just download it and run it; it does not even require installation. With DOCKER_HOST set, you can access the Docker engine in WSL2 from the Windows side. You don't need to shell into WSL2 to interact with Docker and it can use your Windows files. https://download.docker.com/win/static/stable/x86_64 -- unzip, grab self-contained docker.exe. Docker Desktop and Podman Desktop automate this a bit, but it's not a big lift to set this up with regular Docker yourself.

Re: Podman Desktop celebrates 3M downloads

#69

Post by electroly »

osigurdson wrote: post #59
CaptainOfCoit wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You absolutely can run docker on the CLI in WSL2. But again, they're talking about Windows, not Linux-in-Windows or virtualized Linux on Windows. Just because you can do something in WSL2 doesn't mean you "can do it on Windows", as much as you "can run systemd and Wayland on Windows" because you could run it inside a Linux VM...

Yes. For some the distinction between the two is almost nothing as WSL is pretty seamless. However, using Podman directly in your normal Windows shell opens up more use cases. Podman is of course running everything behind the scenes using WSL.

Your posts in this thread seem to be focused on the inability to use Docker from the Windows shell, but it's not true: you just need to set DOCKER_HOST. Then the Windows client can connect to a Linux engine in WSL2. Docker engine in WSL2 runs as a systemd unit and doesn't need to be manually started. Podman/Docker Desktop are doing far less work here than you might be expecting. They are just automating this setup for you. I run this setup and it is genuinely a one-time nothingburger. If you have a bunch of Windows machines, you can have them all share one Linux Docker engine if you want, by pointing DOCKER_HOST at the same host.

Re: Podman Desktop celebrates 3M downloads

#70

Post by FrenchyJiby »

sofixa wrote: post #58
FrenchyJiby wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Podman has good systemd integration, in the form of quadlets. It lets you define a systemd job with some custom syntax and run it as a systemd service, and even stretches to allow some form of kubernetes YAML to be run as local (single node, rootless) containers! Real nice. See previous presentation on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43456934

All I can think of with this is... _But why?_ I mean, if you have one container service only and everything else is ran by systemd, then it makes sense to keep it easy. But other than that, why? Systemd's syntax and docs aren't particularly friendly or easy, so it's not like you gain in simplicity vs just running docker/podman-compose, or even a lightweight orchestrator like Nomad.

I enjoy:

- seamless container logs (journalctl), no weird separate logger

- service start/stop/enable-at-boot no weird separate command

- integration with system/user slices, triggers, cronjobs (timers), exposing containers as first class commands overall!

Basically it's worth seeing container services work with non-container services.

If you don't like systemd, or have no stake in it, sure, have fun without it, but it's definitely added value when you're running services, and want to start containerizing some of them without abandoning all the good tools you are using in favour of docker logs docker run etc.

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