Hi, I’ve been thinking for a few days whether I should learn Docker or Podman. I know that Podman is more FOSS and I like it more in theory, but maybe it’s better to start with docker, for which there is a lot more tutorials. On the other hand, maybe it’s better to straight up learn podman when I don’t know any of the two and not having to change habits later. What do you think? For context, I know how containers works in theory, I know some linux I think well, but I never actually used docker nor podman. In another words: If I want to eventually end up with Podman, is it easier to start with docker and then learn Podman, or start with Podman right away? Thanks in advance
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In case you haven’t started yet. Learn docker, but use podman.
OP, listen to this person. Docker will earn you cash. Podman is nicer to work with for your own shit.
Docker and podman in general work the same, commands are the same, …
Only biggest difference is that now that I’m trying to migrate from docker to podman is figting over volume binds permissions for databases and such.
Finished migration of 3 containers, 50+ left.
It’s easier to start with docker first simply because of the sheer amount of learning resources available on the internet. If you’re having issues, you can usually find a solution quickly with a search engine.
That’s being said, there’s not much differences on how to use them these days. You can even run docker compose on podman.
I’ve read somewhere on lemmy that the podman-compose is unmaintained and shouldn’t be used. Can’t find it now thought.
Yes because it now uses docker-compose by default: https://docs.podman.io/en/latest/markdown/podman-compose.1.html
Podman only if you really care about using FOSS, having first-class rootless mode, and don’t mind the hassle of scarce learning resource and tutorials on all Podman features that are different from docker.
Otherwise docker.
Docker is more ubiquitous, Podman has use cases that diverge from Docker.
Discover the use case and decide from there.
That said docker is a good starting point, their documentation is pretty great and once you know docker you’ll better appreciate why podman is different.
Yes
You didn’t say what’s your goal. What do you want to achieve? For instance, if you work in IT you should probably learn Docker unless Podman is more relevant in your actual daily tasks.
My goal is selfhosting stuff mainly on my raspberry pi. I’m sure I’m not going to work in IT for 3 years and probably not for at least few years after that.
Then just go for Docker. Otherwise you may make it unnecessarily difficult for yourself and get discouraged. In a few years you may revisit the question and see if you still have an interest in podman.
As a podman user myself, they’re essentially the same. I look at the docker documentation when learning new things about podman. 99.9% of the time, it’s exactly the same. For the features that aren’t in podman, you can use the podman-docker package. This gets you a daemon so you can have some docker-specific features such as a container being able to start/stop other containers by mounting the socket as a volume, and it allows you to use docker-compose.
At the end of the day, you’re running containers and both will get the job done. Go with whatever you want to start, and be open to try the other when you inevitably end up with jobby job that uses the other one instead.
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Fewer Letters More Letters DNS Domain Name Service/System Git Popular version control system, primarily for code HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the Web LXC Linux Containers Plex Brand of media server package SSH Secure Shell for remote terminal access nginx Popular HTTP server
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Learn Docker first, it will be faster and easier. It will both give you an intro to containers and you’ll get some practical use for your self hosting needs.
If you’re still curious later you can go deeper into Podman and other container technology.
I just downloaded Podman Desktop and am playing with this. Almost all videos and tutorials out there are for Docker but I’m going to watch those but actually use Podman instead to learn.
They’re very similar so you pretty much can’t go wrong. Podman, I believe, is more secure by default (or aims to be) so might run into more roadblocks with its use.
so might run into more roadblocks with its use.
This has been my experience with Podman. That’s not to say that these roablocks aren’t without reason, nor merit, but there is always a trade off of convenience when optimizing for security.
Honestly, if you have never used containers before I would suggest starting with docker as it has more readily accessible beginner walk through and tutorials. From there, you will have a good idea as to switching to podman is the right move for you or not.
Personally, I started with docker and haven’t moved from there since I don’t see a need (yet). I have dozens of services running on docker. I don’t know how heavy of a lift it would be to learn podman but like I said, I don’t feel the need to do so.
Maybe try out both and see which one you like more?
Just to offer the other perspective. I started with podman years ago. I knew very little about containers and I would say it made the learbing curve a lot steeper. Most guides and README’s use docker and when things didnt work I had to figure out if it was networking, selinux, rootless, not having the docker daemon, etc… without understanding fully what those things were because I didn’t know docker. But when I started running stuff on kubernetes, it was really easy. Pods in podman are isomorphic to kubernetes pods. I think the pain was worth it, but it was definitely not easy at the time. Documentation, guides, and networking have improved since then, so it may not be as big of a deal now
Docker, there are more resources for it and once you know it Podman should be an easy migration if you want to. Also I’m not sure about your claim that Podman is more FOSS than docker, it’s “better” because it doesn’t run as root, but other than that I don’t know of any advantages to it that are not a derivation of “it runs as a regular user”.
Podman is […] “better” because it doesn’t run as root, but other than that I don’t know of any advantages to it that are not a derivation of “it runs as a regular user”.
Podman can run in rootless mode (with some caveats), but it is still able to run as root — it doesn’t only have the capability to run as a “regular user”.
Both?
