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New RancherOS Offers Lean Linux Functionality Within Docker Containers (rancher.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the ready-for-Raspberry-Pi dept.

RancherOS is a lean Linux distribution aiming to offer "the minimum necessary to get Docker up and running," and tucking many actual Linux services into Docker containers. An anonymous Slashdot reader quotes Distrowatch: Josh Curl has announced the release of a new version of RancherOS [which] moves the project out of its alpha status and introduces new features, including an official Raspberry Pi image... "We're especially excited about this since it offers users a cheap method of getting started with Docker and RancherOS."

6 of 49 comments (clear)

  1. ARM since at least 2011 by raymorris · · Score: 2

    By 2011, Docker had ARM support.
    https://github.com/docker/dock...

  2. No, it's lightweight virtualization / jail by raymorris · · Score: 3, Informative

    Docker is basically the fastest, lightest type of virtualization. Mainly it gets you a reasonably secure jail. The container contains the entire userland, the whole OS other than the kernel. Some people use this to run both Debian Linux and Android at the same time. Yeah dependencies are handled too, but that's not normally the point.

  3. booter floppy by KiloByte · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So they put their program on pid 1, on bare BIOS^Wkernel? Ah booters of the old times...

    And this line made me smile:

    System Docker replaces traditional init systems like systemd

    So CADTs are moving away from systemd as fast as they flocked to it, while the rest of us are smirking.

    --
    The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
    1. Re:booter floppy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Nice to see legacy inits like System D being deprecated in favor of more modern approaches, there will be some resistances from system d grey beards who refuse to learn new things but they should be grateful someone is developing code code for them for free. If they don't like new shiny they should fork and go away, after all the code is available.

  4. Some memory is shared, sometimes uses $1 of RAM by raymorris · · Score: 2

    Sometimes shared libraries get only one copy in memory. In other cases, you can end up using more memory. Sometimes it's worth a few extra MBs of RAM.

    Personally, I've developed some expertise with kvm/qemu, so I tend to use full virtualization more often. Yes, it uses even more RAM. 512 MB of RAM costs me what, $3? I bill at $100/hour, so given the choice between using $3 of RAM or 30 minutes of my time, I'll spend the $3.

  5. Re:Docker is... by kwerle · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Docker is a freeze dried VM with mappable ports and filesystem. It runs on several OSs on various platforms. I'm not sure what its killer feature is. It isn't just the ability to include libs with your program - it's a way to include the entire OS with your program - with all the libs and whatever else you need.

    Things I do with docker:
    * get rid of RVM/rbenv, NVM, and all those other version managers. Just fire up a docker container with the version of ruby/node/whaterver you want
    * package up services for deployment (web apps in my case) and toss the image to devops/IT to deploy
    * test tools/software I'm not familiar with - not sure if you want to install latest? fire up a docker container and take it for a spin. And when you're done testing, maybe just continue using the container.
    * run things on platforms that don't support them. Want to run redis on windows? docker container. Want to run git hubflow on windows without installing extra stuff? docker container.