4 ms·

I was amazed by the news at first, but seeing it again, it doesn't seem to be a direct replacement of Docker Desktop. It makes use of K3s under the hood, which

I was amazed by the news at first, but seeing it again, it doesn't seem to be a direct replacement of Docker Desktop. It makes use of K3s under the hood, which is lighter than a full-blown Kubernetes, but still quite heavy. My nearly empty K3s cluster is consistently consuming ~10% CPU time on my local machine. This is not acceptable to me, so a proper replacement of Docker Desktop should be more lightweight.

rvdmei 5y ago
It also comes with nerdctl (docker compatible cli). It interacts with containerd directly and is a drop-in replacement for docker cli.
- xpressvideoz 5y ago
  Oh that's nice, would it be possible to run containerd only, without running any Kubernetes controllers? I suspect the controllers are the root cause of the huge resource consumption, because they are constantly checking for the system components and trying to reconcile them.
  - chucky_z 5y ago
    Yep! If you’re on MacOS check out Lima, it’s a project by Akihiro Suda who is one of the main contributors to nerdctl (and the original author iirc)
    - rvdmei 5y ago
      Rancher Desktop macOS version is based on Lima.
GordonS 5y ago
Ach, the title seems to be mis-selling it. Docker Desktop is all about Docker, Compose and Swarm, and has Kubernetes functionality built on top as an extra. Rancher Desktop seems to be all about Kubernetes - can it even run standalone Docker containers, or Compose/Swarm services? EDIT: answering my own question - I checked the nerdctl GitHub page, and it states that not only is Swarm not supported, but it will not be. So Rancher Desktop is unfortunately not a drop-in Docker Desktop replacement for everyone :(
- chupasaurus 5y ago
  Swarm is a cluster solution made on top of Compose so it isn't useful on a local machine.
  - GordonS 5y ago
    It's very useful on a local machine if you're using Swarm in production, as Swarm supports some additional things that Compose doesn't.
    - chupasaurus 5y ago
      The differences are: - Replicas: could be made with YAML templating - Update/rollback policies other than stop-first, very useful on a local machine? - Resource limits: stayed in v2 to sell Swarm, although there's cgroup_parent which has to be created manually
      - GordonS 5y ago
        There are yet more differences. For example, Swarm supports `configs`, while Compose does not - and I use `configs`, and would much rather not have to have separate service definitions for dev and prod to work around such insufficiencies.

rvdmei 5y ago

It also comes with nerdctl (docker compatible cli). It interacts with containerd directly and is a drop-in replacement for docker cli.

xpressvideoz 5y ago
Oh that's nice, would it be possible to run containerd only, without running any Kubernetes controllers? I suspect the controllers are the root cause of the huge resource consumption, because they are constantly checking for the system components and trying to reconcile them.
- chucky_z 5y ago
  Yep! If you’re on MacOS check out Lima, it’s a project by Akihiro Suda who is one of the main contributors to nerdctl (and the original author iirc)
  - rvdmei 5y ago
    Rancher Desktop macOS version is based on Lima.

GordonS 5y ago

Ach, the title seems to be mis-selling it. Docker Desktop is all about Docker, Compose and Swarm, and has Kubernetes functionality built on top as an extra. Rancher Desktop seems to be all about Kubernetes - can it even run standalone Docker containers, or Compose/Swarm services? EDIT: answering my own question - I checked the nerdctl GitHub page, and it states that not only is Swarm not supported, but it will not be. So Rancher Desktop is unfortunately not a drop-in Docker Desktop replacement for everyone :(

chupasaurus 5y ago
Swarm is a cluster solution made on top of Compose so it isn't useful on a local machine.
- GordonS 5y ago
  It's very useful on a local machine if you're using Swarm in production, as Swarm supports some additional things that Compose doesn't.
  - chupasaurus 5y ago
    The differences are: - Replicas: could be made with YAML templating - Update/rollback policies other than stop-first, very useful on a local machine? - Resource limits: stayed in v2 to sell Swarm, although there's cgroup_parent which has to be created manually
    - GordonS 5y ago
      There are yet more differences. For example, Swarm supports `configs`, while Compose does not - and I use `configs`, and would much rather not have to have separate service definitions for dev and prod to work around such insufficiencies.