Is it any better than lima?

[yaroslavyaroslav]

I used to use lima

Which is as I can tell doing quite the same leveraging pretty much same system tools.

Is it container any better except that this one is backed up by Apple?

[afbjorklund]

There is a more detailed comparison here:

• Apple container lima-vm/lima#3622

[yaroslavyaroslav]

Thanks, that gives some sense of that

[afbjorklund]

The default lima instance uses containerd (with client ctr), to run the containers using a low-level program called runc.

Once upon a time there was an alternative called runv, which evolved into the Kata containers that is used by container:

https://github.com/apple/container/blob/main/docs/tutorial.md (see https://github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers)

Otherwise they are both using Virtualization.framework (VZ), but lima also supports the more portable and versatile QEMU.

[afbjorklund]

• https://thenewstack.io/kata-containers-secure-lightweight-virtual-machines-container-environments/

• https://thenewstack.io/hyper-sh-mixes-containers-hypervisors-something-called-hypernetes/ ("runV")

• https://www.docker.com/blog/containerd-daemon-to-control-runc/

• https://www.docker.com/blog/runc/ ("runC")

[nirs]

@yaroslavyaroslav there are advantages for each solution.

container is better because you don't have to manage the special vm running the containers, and containers are isolated from each other by the micro vm.

lima is better because you can manage the the special vms running the containers, it uses standard cloud images and containers tools, likely to be more compatible with existing containers, and it works on older macOS versions.

[afbjorklund]

Lima also works on other operating systems, and you can make it do tricks like run graphical applications* or play sounds.

* Using UTM is more likely to be a better experience for running a whole desktop environment than VNC, but anyway.