Docker for Windows and macOS has been removed from beta

The developers of the popular container Docker have removed the beta label from the version for macOS and Windows. This eliminates the need to run a separate virtual machine for Docker on those operating systems.

At the end of March of this year, Docker entered the beta phase with the Windows and Mac version. Both versions run natively via virtualization tools on both operating systems. The Mac version runs through Xhyve and the Windows version runs through Hyper-V.

It has also become easier to link containers within the application to the host system and then to the network where the computer is located. In addition, mounting other volumes attached to the host system is easy. Also, the Docker container on the host computer can be reached via localhost instead of a specific ip address, something that was necessary when using Docker in a VM.

Docker is a container that contains all the necessary components to create installation packages. It puts an application including all necessary dependencies in a virtual container. Docker can make development easier this way.

Docker for Windows requires a 64-bit Windows 10 Pro installation. The Mac OS X and macOS versions require a minimum model with support for Intel’s mmu virtualization running on OS X 10.10.3 Yosemite or newer due to the required hypervisor framework. Leaving the beta stage was announced on Dockers blog.