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Regarding your concerns about Docker, I agree with that (even though I've been working on Docker and in the wider container community for almost 5 years now). H
by cyphar 8y ago
Regarding your concerns about Docker, I agree with that (even though I've been working on Docker and in the wider container community for almost 5 years now). However, there are plenty of tools that are compatible with Docker but provide similar benefits.
For instance, (from the openSUSE community which I'm a part of) we have KIWI that provides builds with full introspection on a package level (similar to what you're doing with Guix). If you build the image inside OBS (our build system) then if a dependency of your image is updated then your image will be rebuilt automatically and published in OBS (where it can be further pushed to any Docker/OCI registry you like). The packages are signed, and the image is also "signed" (though it currently signs the image artifact and doesn't use image signing since that is still not standardised). And most packages in openSUSE are bitreproducible (we build everything in OBS).
The above is far and above much better than the current standard in the "official" world of Docker, but unfortunately because OBS has a UI from the early 2000s (which is when it was written) it doesn't get enough attention outside of the communities that use it (and enjoy using it a lot). Everyone wants Dockerfiles even though they cannot provide these features (and you cannot get package manifests of your images without running a package manager in the image, which means you cannot get vulnerability information from the manifest).
[ Though I'm mostly talking about openSUSE here, I also happen to work for SUSE on the containers team. ]
- pxc 8y ago> However, there are plenty of tools that are compatible with Docker but provide similar benefits. And Guix is one of them, remember? From the article: > Add -f docker [to your `guix pack` command] and, instead of a tarball, you get an image in the Docker format that you can pass to docker load on any machine where Docker is installed. :-) > The above is far and above much better than the current standard in the "official" world of Docker, but unfortunately because OBS has a UI from the early 2000s (which is when it was written) it doesn't get enough attention outside of the communities that use it (and enjoy using it a lot). This is so true! I've mostly moved on from traditional, imperative package managers and associated distros in favor of the functional package management paradigm exemplified by Guix, but I still recommend openSUSE to my friends who prefer a more traditional/mainstream distro because of the love I have for the Open Build Service and Zypper. The web interface for OBS does feel clunky these days, but it's a wonderful tool not just for improving the reliability and quality of software packages, but distributing them. Zypper is hands-down the most powerful and complete high-level package management tool I've ever used as part of a binary-based GNU+Linux distro. I love that openSUSE provides an instance of OBS that anyone can use for free to build packages for not just openSUSE but a TON of different distros. I wish more people would explore, take advantage of, and celebrate OBS just like I wish they'd do the same with Nix and Guix!