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Jails and Zones did their jobs before LXC was a thing. The better technology doesn’t always win out — see Windows history.

Thaxll 8y ago
Jails and Zones are inferior to Docker overall, the advantage of Docker is not the isolation technology but the whole workflow of using those containers.
- kuwze 8y ago
  Jails, maybe. Zones, definitely not.
  - elcritch 8y ago
    Zones are much more developed than jails, but not quite as flexible as lxc.
    - kuwze 8y ago
      I did not know that, I thought lxc was behind zones in terms of features/flexibility.
      - elcritch 8y ago
        From what I understand, Linux let’s you configure independent namespaces for network, disk, CPI, etc separately. Though sure entirely what lxc allows you to configure. Whereas zones have a more one-to-one mapping of namespaces so it’s easier to secure. Just what I picked up from using Joynet’s Triton system. I really enjoyed the zones interface on smartos, decent JSON api and cli tools, built from the ground up on ZFS datasets. Jails are terrible in comparison by not really having a good standard api interface, imho.
- hestefisk 8y ago
  You can get a similar workflow with Jails. Docker became popular because of the CLI but there are many similar options now on FreeBSD.
  - zbentley 8y ago
    > Docker became popular because of the CLI Docker became popular because of a ubiquitous CLI. Having good UX is only part of the battle: the massive network effect (and associated tooling boost/community support) is significant and should not be discounted. I'm sure there are similar things to Docker's all-in-one UX that have emerged on the BSDs. I'm also sure there are programs to configure Dropbox using an SCM and FTP links in a fast, seamless way on par with the Dropbox setup flow, but they aren't going to take off, because the predecessor is not only convenient, but is also pre-existing with massive popularity. The same is true for Docker:containers. Some competitor may replace them in time, but whoever they are, "as good as" is not going to be their value prop.

Thaxll 8y ago

Jails and Zones are inferior to Docker overall, the advantage of Docker is not the isolation technology but the whole workflow of using those containers.

kuwze 8y ago
Jails, maybe. Zones, definitely not.
- elcritch 8y ago
  Zones are much more developed than jails, but not quite as flexible as lxc.
  - kuwze 8y ago
    I did not know that, I thought lxc was behind zones in terms of features/flexibility.
    - elcritch 8y ago
      From what I understand, Linux let’s you configure independent namespaces for network, disk, CPI, etc separately. Though sure entirely what lxc allows you to configure. Whereas zones have a more one-to-one mapping of namespaces so it’s easier to secure. Just what I picked up from using Joynet’s Triton system. I really enjoyed the zones interface on smartos, decent JSON api and cli tools, built from the ground up on ZFS datasets. Jails are terrible in comparison by not really having a good standard api interface, imho.
hestefisk 8y ago
You can get a similar workflow with Jails. Docker became popular because of the CLI but there are many similar options now on FreeBSD.
- zbentley 8y ago
  > Docker became popular because of the CLI Docker became popular because of a ubiquitous CLI. Having good UX is only part of the battle: the massive network effect (and associated tooling boost/community support) is significant and should not be discounted. I'm sure there are similar things to Docker's all-in-one UX that have emerged on the BSDs. I'm also sure there are programs to configure Dropbox using an SCM and FTP links in a fast, seamless way on par with the Dropbox setup flow, but they aren't going to take off, because the predecessor is not only convenient, but is also pre-existing with massive popularity. The same is true for Docker:containers. Some competitor may replace them in time, but whoever they are, "as good as" is not going to be their value prop.