Docker Desktop announces support for Linux! From being abandoned to "holding back the big move" and making a comeback

At the recent DockerCon 2022, Docker officially announced a good news - Docker Desktop for Linux is officially released! This means that Docker Desktop is now officially available for Linux users!

The release of Docker Desktop for Linux brings the productivity benefits of Docker Desktop to developers using Linux workstations. Keep in mind that until now, Docker Desktop was only available for users of Mac and Windows workstations.

Docker Desktop for Linux

Developers and users of the Linux desktop environment can now use Docker Desktop on Linux to seamlessly create containers with the exact same Docker Desktop experience on macOS and Windows, including access to the latest features such as Docker Extensions.

Docker Desktop is available for Debian, Ubuntu, and Fedora, with experimental support for Arch Linux.

Docker Desktop for Linux comes pre-installed with tools like Docker Compose, Docker CLI, and Kubernetes, simplifying the process of installing and updating the tool.

The Docker Desktop for Linux dashboard also makes it easier for developers to perform common Docker operations involving container, image, and volume management. All of these help improve developer productivity, as well as collaboration within teams using Docker Desktop.

With Docker Desktop on Linux, users can finally experience a cross-platform Docker experience with ease. To sum up, many of the highlights that can excite developers are as follows:

• Access new features using Docker extensions
• Seamless integration with Kubernetes
• Easier management and organization of volumes, containers and images.
• Docker Desktop can be installed on Linux

From being abandoned to "holding back the big move" and making a comeback: Docker Desktop's counter-attack

Docker is a leading provider of cloud-native application development tools, content and services. Docker Desktop is the easiest way to containerize applications, users don't need to think about setting up an environment on the platform of their choice to get started, and they only need to install Docker Desktop to get started.

The Docker Desktop app comes with container tools like Kubernetes, Docker Compose, BuildKit, and vulnerability scanning.

In 2010, Docker was officially launched, and it was called "dotCloud" at the time, and it was not renamed "Docker Inc." until it was officially open sourced in 2013.

Later, with the strong rise of Kubernetes, Docker began to face a "crisis". Previously, because Docker was not compatible with the CRI interface, Kubernetes had to develop a dockershim to be compatible with Docker in order to support Docker, but as Kubernetes gradually became an industry standard, Docker was later deprecated by Kubernetes.

After layoffs and CEO changes, Docker had to restructure the company until the end of 2019, hoping to "bet" a future on the edge of life and death.

Fortunately, Docker ushered in new opportunities. In the past few years, Docker's operations have continued to improve due to its focus on products for developers, and it has attracted a lot of investment and financing.

Until then, Docker Desktop was only available for Windows and macOS, but not Linux platforms. Linux users can only use the Kocker engine to create/test their Kocker containers. Now, with the arrival of Docker Desktop for Linux, Linux users can use Docker Desktop more conveniently.

Notes on installing and running Docker Desktop on Linux

Currently, users can already get deb and rpm packages officially supported by Ubuntu, Debian and Fedora. The Docker Desktop package for Arch Linux is under development but available for testing.

It is worth noting that the overall system requirements for installing and running Docker Desktop on Linux include:

• 64-bit Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Ubuntu 21.10, Fedora 35, Fedora 36, or Debian 11.
• KVM virtualization support
• QEMU 5.2 or later
• Systemd initialization system
• GNOME or KDE desktop environment
• 4 GB RAM

If the user is in a non-GNOME desktop environment, GNOME Terminal needs to be installed for installation. Otherwise, users can follow the official instructions in the documentation.

Reference link: https://www.docker.com/press-release/docker-announces-docker-extensions-and-docker-desktop-for-linux-at-dockercon-2022/