The docker tools themselves ARE cross platform, but 99% of docker images in the wild are based off Linux, and have ELF binaries inside. Windows does not have eq

The docker tools themselves ARE cross platform, but 99% of docker images in the wild are based off Linux, and have ELF binaries inside. Windows does not have equivalents for every single Linux system call. This is why you need WSL. You can build an image based on a Windows base image, and run it natively in Windows.