Microsoft and Docker Announce Linux Container Support via LinuxKit

At the DockerCon event, Docker announced LinuxKit, which allows Linux containers to be used on a variety of platforms. Microsoft announces support for this in Windows 10 and Windows Server.

Docker reports that with LinuxKit it should be possible to run a Linux distribution on platforms that do not have native support for the OS, such as Windows and macOS. For example, the minimum size of an image is 35MB and all system services run as containers, allowing them to be removed or replaced as desired. Docker has made LinuxKit’s source code available via GitHub. Alpine, the Linux distribution that Docker uses for its official images, will remain, according to the company to exist.

In its own announcement, Microsoft writes that it supports Linux containers in Windows Server by using the same isolation techniques as its Hyper-V hypervisor. This allows Windows and Linux containers to run side by side, the company said. This functionality should be available in both Windows and Azure. Microsoft says it partners with Canonical, Intel, Red Hat and SUSE, and allows users to choose which Linux distribution they want to use.

In addition to LinuxKit, Docker announced the Moby project, which provides a number of components and a framework for building proprietary container systems. Docker is a service that makes it possible to run software in a container that provides everything you need. The difference with a virtual machine is, for example, that less system capacity is required.