Should I use Docker to create Linux OS within a Linux OS?

Question

I recently started to learn Docker, and know it creates and runs Ubuntu within a container with just a simple command.

docker run -i -t ubuntu:14.04 /bin/bash

I also know that docker-machine uses VirtualBox to create Linux OS in a very handy way.

So what's the difference between them?

Answer 1

So docker run -i -t ubuntu:14.04 /bin/bash uses docker engine to create containers(ubuntu container in this case) and will use your Host OS to manage them. On the other hand docker machine will use virtualBox and create VMs(Linux) which will serve as docker hosts running docker engine on them. There are a few links you can refer to :

• https://dougwells.gitbooks.io/docker-notes/content/what_is_docker/what_is_difference_between_docker-machine_and_dock.html

• https://docs.docker.com/machine/overview/

• https://docs.docker.com/engine/

Answer 2

The first command using docker run is to start a new container. Docker containers can be run anywhere - on your local machine, within a VM (Virtualbox, VMWare etc), in an instance in the cloud, on bare metal or even on your smartphone. All this requires is to have docker installed and running as a daemon / service

docker-machine is a tool used to mimic running docker containers locally using a VM. This is only because earlier versions of docker were not available on MacOS & Windows natively. As such a Linux OS is made available insider a virtual machine with docker installed. On this VM it was possible to run docker commands and docker containers as though it was running docker natively.

You should check out Docker for Mac and Docker for Windows if these are compatible with your setup.