Overview of Docker Desktop

Docker Desktop is a software application for Windows, Linux and Mac operating systems that allows users to create, manage, and run Docker containers on their local machine. Docker containers are lightweight, portable, and self-contained environments that can run almost any software application in a consistent manner, regardless of the underlying host operating system.

Docker Desktop is free for small businesses (fewer than 250 employees AND less than $10 million in annual revenue), personal use, education, and non-commercial open-source projects. Otherwise, it requires a paid subscription for professional use. Paid subscriptions are also required for government entities. When downloading and installing Docker Desktop, you are asked to agree to the Docker Subscription Service Agreement

Why to use Docker Desktop?

Using Docker Desktop can provide a number of benefits, including:

1. Consistent development environments: With Docker Desktop, developers can ensure that their application will run in the same way across different machines and operating systems.

2. Faster development cycles: Docker containers can be quickly created and destroyed, which can help speed up the development and testing process.

3. Scalability: Docker containers can be easily scaled up or down to meet changing demand.

4. Compatibility: Docker containers can be used to run almost any type of software application, from web applications to databases and beyond.

5. Cost savings: By using Docker containers, developers can avoid the costs associated with setting up and maintaining separate development, testing, and production environments.

 

Features of Docker Desktop

Docker Desktop is a powerful tool for developers who need to create and manage containers on their local machine, and can help streamline the development process and improve application compatibility and scalability.. Here are some of the key features of Docker Desktop:

1. Easy installation: Docker Desktop is easy to install on both Windows and Mac operating systems, with a simple graphical installer.

2. Docker CLI integration: Docker Desktop comes with the Docker CLI (command-line interface) pre-installed, allowing you to quickly and easily manage your Docker containers using the command line.

3. Docker Compose integration: Docker Desktop also includes Docker Compose, a tool for defining and running multi-container Docker applications.

4. Image and container management: Docker Desktop includes a graphical interface for managing Docker images and containers, allowing you to easily start, stop, and remove containers, as well as view logs and inspect container details.

5. Container templates: Docker Desktop includes a number of pre-configured container templates for common use cases, such as running a web server or database.

6. Volume and network management: Docker Desktop includes tools for managing volumes and networks, allowing you to easily configure data persistence and communication between containers.

7. Kubernetes integration: Docker Desktop includes support for running and managing Kubernetes clusters on your local machine, making it easy to test and develop Kubernetes applications.

Docker Desktop provides a comprehensive set of tools for managing Docker containers on your local machine, making it an essential tool for developers and DevOps professionals.

 

Dev Environments

Dev Environments lets you create a configurable developer environment with all the code and tools you need to quickly get up and running. It helps in the following ways:

• Uses a container locally as a full development environment.
• Allows developers to share code (including dependencies) with your team members in one click.
• Move quickly between branches or run them side by side in VSCode.

It uses tools built into code editors that allow Docker to access code mounted into a container rather than on your local host. This isolates the tools, files and running services on your machine allowing multiple versions of them to exist side by side.

Docker Extensions

Docker Extensions lets you use third-party tools within Docker Desktop to extend its functionality.

Why Developers Need Docker Extensions

• Extensions allows developers to seamlessly connect their favorite development tools to your application development and deployment workflows
• Extensions augments Docker Desktop with debugging, testing, security, and networking functionalities, and build custom add-ons using the Extensions SDK
• Extensions open a realm of possibilities for developers by adding a variety of tools to your development workflows
• Developers can now leverage their favorite tools directly from within Docker Desktop with one-click installation of extensions
• Developers can now discover new ways to implement and optimize workflows in the Marketplace with Extensions from both official Extension partners and community members.

Support for Containerd

Containerd is the leading open container runtime; better yet, it’s already a part of Docker Engine! By switching to containerd for image management, we’re better aligning ourselves with the broader industry tooling. 

When enabled in the latest Docker Desktop, this experimental feature lets you use the following Docker commands with containerd under the hood: run, commit, build, push, load, and save.

This integration has the following benefits:

1. Containerd’s snapshotter implementation helps you quickly plug in new features. Some examples include using stargz to lazy-pull images on startup or nydus and dragonfly for peer-to-peer image distribution.

2. The containerd content store can natively store multi-platform images and other OCI-compatible objects. This enables features like the ability to build and manipulate multi-platform images using Docker Engine (and possibly other content in the future!).

Support for Wasm Containers

 

Wasm (short for WebAssembly) is a fast, light alternative to the Linux and Windows containers you’re using in Docker today.

Docker Community sees Wasm as a complementary technology to Linux containers. This is where developers can choose which technology they use (or both!) depending on the use case. And as the community explores what’s possible with Wasm, the effort is to make Wasm applications easier to develop, build, and run using the experience and tools you know and love. Docker solves the traditional problem – it works on my machine, works on yours and in production flawlessly. Docker Desktop and CLI can now manage both Linux containers and Wasm containers side by side.

To run Wasm containers on Docker Desktop, you will need to enable containerd under Dashboard > Settings.

Support for Kubernetes

Docker Desktop support Kubernetes. You don’t need to install Kubernetes separately. Go to Settings > Kubernetes > Enable Kubernetes.