7 ms·

Rancher Desktop 1.0

152 points by vyskocilm 5y ago

westurner 5y ago
From https://rancherdesktop.io/ https://rancherdesktop.io/ : > Kubernetes and Container Management on the Desktop: > An open-source desktop application for Mac, Windows and Linux. > Rancher Desktop runs Kubernetes and container management on your desktop. You can choose the version of Kubernetes you want to run. You can build, push, pull, and run container images using either containerd or Moby (dockerd). The container images you build can be run by Kubernetes immediately without the need for a registry. How does Rancher Desktop compare to Docker Desktop in terms of e.g. k8s support?
- CameronNemo 5y ago
  I think they ship k3s, which is sort if vanilla. It works great in my (limited) experience.
- jeffh 5y ago
  A key point around Rancher Desktop's k8s (actually k3s) support that stands out is that it allows you to use any k3s version and swap between them. This is great for those that want to test their workloads on different k8s versions right on their desktop.
thrwawy283 5y ago
It feels like we're late to create the desktop experience where most things run in containers. My wish is to run something like Proxmox as a "stable base", and within it have a VM for my firewall (pfsense), my primary Linux OS (Fedora/Arch), a VM for services (Docker & k8s), and a VM for Windows gaming. I like the separation of concerns. I've wanted to do all of this on a laptop but I can't get a VM to exclusively take control of the GPU & display controller (overtake the laptop display panel). For a long while now I've wanted a stable, slim base OS. I actually thought Rancher Desktop was a rebirth of RancherOS: https://rancher.com/docs/os/ https://rancher.com/docs/os/ I really liked the concept of a "system docker" and a "user docker". I thought Fedora CoreOS had potential to be the first Linux "Desktop" container distro. Oh well, maybe a desktop distro that aims to containerize all apps is a 2023 thing. Still remember that Steam bug?
- XorNot 5y ago
  We're sort of desperately missing a high speed graphics option for VMs. Which is one of those things which feels like it should have become more prevalent by now with everyone throwing GPUs into server hardware and wanting to timeslice it amongst containers.
- lostmsu 5y ago
  Have you tried Cubes OS?
  - thrwawy283 5y ago
    Yes, but I don't consider that easier to maintain. The appeal of a dockerfile or k8s manifest means I can expect some degree of isolation, and easily distribute that experience to others. Getting something to run in Cube OS is more of the VM experience, than container experience. I do like both.
- signalblur 5y ago
  Isn’t that essentially what fedora Silverblue is? It’s an immutable desktop OS where everything is ran in flatpaks/podman pods for the most part and it’s actually a really great experience. Can play stellaris on steam with it for example with no issue.
  - thrwawy283 5y ago
    I have never heard of this (until now). Thank you! I've been loving NixOS so I hope it's easy to build the world like that. :-)
    - signalblur 5y ago
      No problem! I love it so much - it’s really simple. One thing I’d recommend is if you use vs code - to set it’s built in interpreter to use the toolbox: https://www.carmenbianca.eu/en/post/2021-02-05-silverblue-development/ https://www.carmenbianca.eu/en/post/2021-02-05-silverblue-de... Specifically the “vscodium in a flatpak” (also of course works with the Microsoft version vscode )
smarx007 5y ago
Can it be used to run Docker Compose workloads? As I understand, the tool is launched because at the end of January the Docker Desktop grace period elapses and it becomes paid for large business.
- SureshG 5y ago
  Yes, nerdctl compose will work for most of the use cases. Check this compatibility guide - https://github.com/containerd/nerdctl/blob/master/docs/compose.md#unimplemented-yaml-fields https://github.com/containerd/nerdctl/blob/master/docs/compo...
- beardedaussie 5y ago
  I am also curious about this. Reading the FAQ (https://docs.rancherdesktop.io/faq https://docs.rancherdesktop.io/faq): *Q: I can no longer run docker compose after installing Rancher Desktop and uninstalling Docker Desktop, what happened?* *A: The docker compose subcommand is bundled as part of a Docker Desktop installation and is removed when uninstalled. Follow these instructions to install it.* It also stated you can have both Docker Desktop and Rancher Desktop installed, but only one can be running at a time as it shares the same docker socket. I might try installing Rancher Desktop and stopping Docker Desktop and seeing if it all works as expected.
- CameronNemo 5y ago
  I have not tried it, but I imagine you can. There is an option to use dockerd in the VM.
- encryptluks2 5y ago
  There is Podman Compose which will what you want. I particularly like Podman, because you can use it for Minikube, independently, rootless, etc.
  - tjr225 5y ago
    FWIW podman does not work as a driver for minikube on Apple Silicon. Really hoping it gets sorted out because that’s probably what I would use.
btreecat 5y ago
This is something I find exciting! I was looking at our infrastructure and between all the various services, we basically have recreated k8s only more expensive and fragmented and tied explicitly to AWS. On top of that, our local test env is based on docker-compose so it often has issues matching exactly to the deployed env in the cloud once you add all the networking. I've wanted to start moving us to Kubernetes so we can have a much closer env across the board. In order to do this, we would need to support both osx and Linux development, and for this I was investigating minikube but my previous XP with minikube left me not liking that solution long term. I look forward to investigating this tool and seeing the potential in a local development workflow.
- CameronNemo 5y ago
  I blogged about using Linux containers on macOS, including research into the operation and features of solutions like minikube, lima/nerdctl, Rancher Desktop, and Docker Desktop. You may find it helpful. https://cameronnemo.gitlab.io/posts/mac-os-containers/ https://cameronnemo.gitlab.io/posts/mac-os-containers/
  - btreecat 5y ago
    Thank you, I will check it out
- rodgerd 5y ago
  > we basically have recreated k8s only more expensive and fragmented Exactly my driver for getting k8s (in the form of OpenShift) in place years ago to support a microservices push: if you want to deploy a fleet of a few hundred independent runtimes independently of one another, you could waste a lot of time and effort building everything that's needed to support that out of bits of VMware and F5 irules and things, or you can use something designed to support the case from day one.
jmacd 5y ago
This is the Spite Store of containers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YlA6gtha-w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YlA6gtha-w
cholmon 5y ago
It looks like Rancher Desktop uses Lima VM (https://github.com/lima-vm/lima https://github.com/lima-vm/lima) under the hood, I suppose in the same way that Docker Desktop uses Hypervisor.framework on macos? This is the first I've heard about the Lima project. I'll be interested to see how file system performance with this compares to Docker Desktop on mac.
- jbreiding 5y ago
  While I haven’t run rancher desktop, i have been running colima. https://github.com/abiosoft/colima https://github.com/abiosoft/colima Which also is built on top of lima. It’s been great, some network wonkiness, and works on m1 perfectly. The rancher devs have been contributing back to the project helping improve both.
- solarkraft 5y ago
  Cool! Haven't used it with containers (Docker Desktop has been good enough), but am quite a Lima fan. The main issues I've had are in networking and you have to keep in mind that you have to explicitly specify writable directories. Other than that it seems pretty well comparable to WSL2.
nhoughto 5y ago
Just in time for the end of jan Docker Desktop grace period (https://www.docker.com/blog/the-grace-period-for-the-docker-subscription-service-agreement-ends-soon-heres-what-you-need-to-know/ https://www.docker.com/blog/the-grace-period-for-the-docker-...). I played with this when first announced, and then now and all the things I wanted when i first tried it out are now fixed (mainly transparent networking..) and the option for dockerd container engine makes migrating pretty simple.
- nhoughto 5y ago
  minor additional benefit is that it configures 'service account signing' in k3s OOTB, so you don't have to hack it in by changing config behind docker desktop's back if you really need it like we did.
hhh 5y ago
I have been using Rancher Desktop since the day Docker announced they would charge corporations for Docker Desktop. I don't really need it much, but I genuinely could not have had a cleaner transition. I uninstalled Docker Desktop, and hit install on Rancher Desktop. Everything 'just worked' and I started using nerdctl. This was on Windows, and a few months ago now. I tried to install it on my personal M1 Max Macbook, and it was annoying enough (the vm stuff, which was annoying with Docker Desktop) that I just used Multipass and installed docker. I would 100% recommend anyone dependent on Docker Desktop on Windows give it a shot.
hsn915 5y ago
This is depressing actually. Instead of working to simplify the desktop, people are pouring energy into solutions that further complexity everything. I don't understand the comments on this thread that express excitement and enthusiasm. To this day, the UX of the linux desktop is subpar. This is caused by the complexity involved in running a gnu/linux system. We do not need additional layers of complexity. We need to collapse the layers and simplify the architecture of everything.
- taeric 5y ago
  Pretty sure this is a non sequitur. This isn't a desktop environment, but a desktop application to manage containers. Right?
- jeffh 5y ago
  I feel you hit reply on the wrong thread ... this seems to have nothing to do with Rancher Desktop?!?
- yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
  Rancher Desktop is > an open source app for desktop Kubernetes and container management on Mac, Windows and Linux What does that have to do with Linux desktop UX or running a GNU/Linux system? I could see objecting to k8s and containers in general on the basis of too many layers, but by the time someone's looking at using Rancher Desktop they've probably made that decision already. (For instance, this caught my eye because at work we ship everything in containers. Even if I disliked that, there's no way I'm ever moving the whole company off containerization, so I want the best tools to do the job I have.)
  - hsn915 5y ago
    I was meta-commenting about other comments in this thread that imply the future of desktop is all containers and that this would be a good thing.
tokumei 5y ago
These desktop applications look nice, but personally I’m much more comfortable with CLI tools. I have no idea what my colleagues are doing that use GUI git programs. I can’t even stand editor integration plugins. Edit: On topic, just test k8s config changes in prod :^)
- lucasyvas 5y ago
  You need Docker Desktop on macOS and Windows even if you don't want it. Please, send help :(
  - carlreid 5y ago
    For Windows, you can run docker in WSL at least. It's also easy to install using the script at https://get.docker.com https://get.docker.com. It will warn you about WSL and recommend Docker Desktop for Windows, which is funny since Docker Desktop can also run docker for you in WSL.
    - capableweb 5y ago
      Could you really claim that installing Docker via WSL is actually running Docker on Windows? It's really hard for me to claim such. Rather, you're installing/running Docker via Ubuntu (or whatever image you use), while Windows is the host.
      - tyingq 5y ago
        I think the context was replying to "You Need Docker Desktop", which used to be true with WSL1. WSL2 opens up the option to run regular Docker in the WSL2 instance, which doesn't have to be Ubuntu, but could be.
      - resizeitplz 5y ago
        Sure you can. WSL abstracts a lot of the networking/integration between the host and VM, just like Docker Desktop does. The experiences are comparable.
- 5y ago
rjzzleep 5y ago
What's the state of Rancher these days? I was handing over a clients project and looking for someone to maintain it long term. I chose Rancher in my ignorance, but all Rancher did was tank the project. They installed their own halfbaked inhouse CloudNative Storage Provider, then quoted the client 50k to try to stabilize it. Their sales people were also nonstop trying to sell them on more consulting hours on top of the 50k they were taking in license fee for a 3 node cluster. The whole thing left such a bad taste in my mouth that whenever I see Rancher I tell my clients to look for other options and run away as far as possible. Now that Suse owns them I'm a bit more open to it, but I imagine there are still a lot of old rancher people in there. Can anyone enlighten me on the current state of affairs?
- qeternity 5y ago
  We use rancher for a few clusters. The new UI a overhaul is atrocious and is very broken.
- bbunix 5y ago
  The latest version 2.6 has an issue where it can lose track of the cluster state, rendering it useless. (You had one job Rancher).
- CasperDern 5y ago
  UI looks nice but is janky. Documentation is lacking, but sufficient. Longhorn works great (if you ignore CPU usage due to syncing when there's a lot of IOPS). Overal though self-hosting it has been pretty great for us from a usability perspective. Not sure if it's as enterprise-ready as they say though. Also haven't had to deal with their sales/support (yet).
- arcastroe 5y ago
  I self-host rancher 2.6 for personal use and maintain a 3-node cluster. I find it enjoyable to work with though I only host ~13 different web applications: private docker registry, gitea, drone, plex media server, sagemath through jupyter, and a few personal projects. It's probably unnecessary/overkill for single-user like myself, but so far I like it
dang 5y ago
A related thread from a few months ago: Rancher Desktop, a Docker Desktop Replacement - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28835690 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28835690 - Oct 2021 (220 comments)
Shadonototra 5y ago
can't we do better than electron? seriously? a whole freaking browser only just to display few sliders, combobox and buttons? this is very sad and concerning, either people are clueless, or they are clueless, i see no other reasons; you really not care at all, do you? you use go already, use that https://fyne.io/ https://fyne.io/
- seabrookmx 5y ago
  Such a tiresome argument. We need a whole freaking browser, only to display some text on this Web 1.0 hackernews website? If the tool works well and doesn't use too many resources (see: VS Code, Spotify, Postman, among others that use a "browser" based UI), why does it matter? Let developers choose the tools they want to build the things they want to build. You want a k8s desktop app written in fyne-io? Go for it!
  - Shadonototra 5y ago
    > If the tool works well and doesn't use too many resources (see: VS Code, Spotify, Postman, among others that use a "browser" based UI), why does it matter? hahaha, i see, it's a lost battle, bloaters of computers, you won hope you not from EU, i would be ashamed > Let developers choose the tools they want to build the things they want to build. You want a k8s desktop app written in fyne-io? Go for it! slave mindset, empower the idiocracy, never give feedack, never stand up when you think wrong things, negative feedback = troll obviously reminds me of a packed bus, there was that random drunk dude harassing that other random guy everyone stood silent that's our society, and that's why it's trash another startup with 100M in VC funding and generates 1k dollar in profit but i am wrong, i always am wrong
    - seabrookmx 5y ago
      > reminds me of a packed bus, there was that random drunk dude harassing that other random guy > everyone stood silent Hardly. I have no problem with you stating your opinion, and would not downvote anyone for doing so. I'm simply saying that I hear this opinion all the time and don't agree with it. > hope you not from EU, i would be ashamed Not sure how my country of origin is at all relevant here, but.. OK.
capableweb 5y ago
It's unclear from this website or the landing page of Rancher Desktop, can I use this to just run containers without involving the bloated mess which is Kubernetes? I just want to have something to run the container runtime cross-platform locally, without involving Kubernetes as I already run a different service for container management on my servers.
ginko 5y ago
Am I the only one that's starting to get a bit annoyed when random software for the desktop is getting called "XYZ Desktop"? I came here expecting a new desktop environment or WM called 'Rancher'.
- lioeters 5y ago
  I agree, it should be called "XYZ for Desktop".
- lf-non 5y ago
  It is an indicator of mindset shift in the larger populance. In a word where mobile and web apps are becoming more and more popular, calling a product a 'software solution' or an 'app' does not immediately make it obvious where the software will run. Adding the word desktop makes it stand out to the audience who is looking for desktop software (and presumably who don't want to setup server side software, fiddle with cli or use an externally hosted orchestration service). I recommend embracing the new reality that a vast majority of consumer grade software in present day world does not target desktops.
- bzzzt 5y ago
  I think the 'desktop' naming convention is older than most OSS WM's/desktop environments, it was even used for games: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Jones_and_His_Desktop_Adventures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Jones_and_His_Desktop_... (now that would be a great name for a WM ;) )
steeve 5y ago
The killer feature over Docker for Mac would be memory ballooning. With this, there would be no need to specify a specific amount of memory, and the Linux VM would live happily alongside Mac OS. I know this is a limitation of Virtualisation/Hypervisor Framework apparently, but still. It works wonder on WSL2, for instance. Assigning all CPUs shouldn't do anything impactful really.

152 points by vyskocilm 5y ago

From https://rancherdesktop.io/ https://rancherdesktop.io/ : > Kubernetes and Container Management on the Desktop: > An open-source desktop application for Mac, Windows and Linux. > Rancher Desktop runs Kubernetes and container management on your desktop. You can choose the version of Kubernetes you want to run. You can build, push, pull, and run container images using either containerd or Moby (dockerd). The container images you build can be run by Kubernetes immediately without the need for a registry. How does Rancher Desktop compare to Docker Desktop in terms of e.g. k8s support?

CameronNemo 5y ago
I think they ship k3s, which is sort if vanilla. It works great in my (limited) experience.
jeffh 5y ago
A key point around Rancher Desktop's k8s (actually k3s) support that stands out is that it allows you to use any k3s version and swap between them. This is great for those that want to test their workloads on different k8s versions right on their desktop.

thrwawy283 5y ago

It feels like we're late to create the desktop experience where most things run in containers. My wish is to run something like Proxmox as a "stable base", and within it have a VM for my firewall (pfsense), my primary Linux OS (Fedora/Arch), a VM for services (Docker & k8s), and a VM for Windows gaming. I like the separation of concerns. I've wanted to do all of this on a laptop but I can't get a VM to exclusively take control of the GPU & display controller (overtake the laptop display panel). For a long while now I've wanted a stable, slim base OS. I actually thought Rancher Desktop was a rebirth of RancherOS: https://rancher.com/docs/os/ https://rancher.com/docs/os/ I really liked the concept of a "system docker" and a "user docker". I thought Fedora CoreOS had potential to be the first Linux "Desktop" container distro. Oh well, maybe a desktop distro that aims to containerize all apps is a 2023 thing. Still remember that Steam bug?

XorNot 5y ago
We're sort of desperately missing a high speed graphics option for VMs. Which is one of those things which feels like it should have become more prevalent by now with everyone throwing GPUs into server hardware and wanting to timeslice it amongst containers.
lostmsu 5y ago
Have you tried Cubes OS?
- thrwawy283 5y ago
  Yes, but I don't consider that easier to maintain. The appeal of a dockerfile or k8s manifest means I can expect some degree of isolation, and easily distribute that experience to others. Getting something to run in Cube OS is more of the VM experience, than container experience. I do like both.
signalblur 5y ago
Isn’t that essentially what fedora Silverblue is? It’s an immutable desktop OS where everything is ran in flatpaks/podman pods for the most part and it’s actually a really great experience. Can play stellaris on steam with it for example with no issue.
- thrwawy283 5y ago
  I have never heard of this (until now). Thank you! I've been loving NixOS so I hope it's easy to build the world like that. :-)
  - signalblur 5y ago
    No problem! I love it so much - it’s really simple. One thing I’d recommend is if you use vs code - to set it’s built in interpreter to use the toolbox: https://www.carmenbianca.eu/en/post/2021-02-05-silverblue-development/ https://www.carmenbianca.eu/en/post/2021-02-05-silverblue-de... Specifically the “vscodium in a flatpak” (also of course works with the Microsoft version vscode )

smarx007 5y ago

Can it be used to run Docker Compose workloads? As I understand, the tool is launched because at the end of January the Docker Desktop grace period elapses and it becomes paid for large business.

SureshG 5y ago
Yes, nerdctl compose will work for most of the use cases. Check this compatibility guide - https://github.com/containerd/nerdctl/blob/master/docs/compose.md#unimplemented-yaml-fields https://github.com/containerd/nerdctl/blob/master/docs/compo...
beardedaussie 5y ago
I am also curious about this. Reading the FAQ (https://docs.rancherdesktop.io/faq https://docs.rancherdesktop.io/faq): *Q: I can no longer run docker compose after installing Rancher Desktop and uninstalling Docker Desktop, what happened?* *A: The docker compose subcommand is bundled as part of a Docker Desktop installation and is removed when uninstalled. Follow these instructions to install it.* It also stated you can have both Docker Desktop and Rancher Desktop installed, but only one can be running at a time as it shares the same docker socket. I might try installing Rancher Desktop and stopping Docker Desktop and seeing if it all works as expected.
CameronNemo 5y ago
I have not tried it, but I imagine you can. There is an option to use dockerd in the VM.
encryptluks2 5y ago
There is Podman Compose which will what you want. I particularly like Podman, because you can use it for Minikube, independently, rootless, etc.
- tjr225 5y ago
  FWIW podman does not work as a driver for minikube on Apple Silicon. Really hoping it gets sorted out because that’s probably what I would use.

btreecat 5y ago

This is something I find exciting! I was looking at our infrastructure and between all the various services, we basically have recreated k8s only more expensive and fragmented and tied explicitly to AWS. On top of that, our local test env is based on docker-compose so it often has issues matching exactly to the deployed env in the cloud once you add all the networking. I've wanted to start moving us to Kubernetes so we can have a much closer env across the board. In order to do this, we would need to support both osx and Linux development, and for this I was investigating minikube but my previous XP with minikube left me not liking that solution long term. I look forward to investigating this tool and seeing the potential in a local development workflow.

CameronNemo 5y ago
I blogged about using Linux containers on macOS, including research into the operation and features of solutions like minikube, lima/nerdctl, Rancher Desktop, and Docker Desktop. You may find it helpful. https://cameronnemo.gitlab.io/posts/mac-os-containers/ https://cameronnemo.gitlab.io/posts/mac-os-containers/
- btreecat 5y ago
  Thank you, I will check it out
rodgerd 5y ago
> we basically have recreated k8s only more expensive and fragmented Exactly my driver for getting k8s (in the form of OpenShift) in place years ago to support a microservices push: if you want to deploy a fleet of a few hundred independent runtimes independently of one another, you could waste a lot of time and effort building everything that's needed to support that out of bits of VMware and F5 irules and things, or you can use something designed to support the case from day one.

jmacd 5y ago

This is the Spite Store of containers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YlA6gtha-w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YlA6gtha-w

cholmon 5y ago

It looks like Rancher Desktop uses Lima VM (https://github.com/lima-vm/lima https://github.com/lima-vm/lima) under the hood, I suppose in the same way that Docker Desktop uses Hypervisor.framework on macos? This is the first I've heard about the Lima project. I'll be interested to see how file system performance with this compares to Docker Desktop on mac.

jbreiding 5y ago
While I haven’t run rancher desktop, i have been running colima. https://github.com/abiosoft/colima https://github.com/abiosoft/colima Which also is built on top of lima. It’s been great, some network wonkiness, and works on m1 perfectly. The rancher devs have been contributing back to the project helping improve both.
solarkraft 5y ago
Cool! Haven't used it with containers (Docker Desktop has been good enough), but am quite a Lima fan. The main issues I've had are in networking and you have to keep in mind that you have to explicitly specify writable directories. Other than that it seems pretty well comparable to WSL2.

nhoughto 5y ago

Just in time for the end of jan Docker Desktop grace period (https://www.docker.com/blog/the-grace-period-for-the-docker-subscription-service-agreement-ends-soon-heres-what-you-need-to-know/ https://www.docker.com/blog/the-grace-period-for-the-docker-...). I played with this when first announced, and then now and all the things I wanted when i first tried it out are now fixed (mainly transparent networking..) and the option for dockerd container engine makes migrating pretty simple.

nhoughto 5y ago
minor additional benefit is that it configures 'service account signing' in k3s OOTB, so you don't have to hack it in by changing config behind docker desktop's back if you really need it like we did.

hhh 5y ago

I have been using Rancher Desktop since the day Docker announced they would charge corporations for Docker Desktop. I don't really need it much, but I genuinely could not have had a cleaner transition. I uninstalled Docker Desktop, and hit install on Rancher Desktop. Everything 'just worked' and I started using nerdctl. This was on Windows, and a few months ago now. I tried to install it on my personal M1 Max Macbook, and it was annoying enough (the vm stuff, which was annoying with Docker Desktop) that I just used Multipass and installed docker. I would 100% recommend anyone dependent on Docker Desktop on Windows give it a shot.

hsn915 5y ago

This is depressing actually. Instead of working to simplify the desktop, people are pouring energy into solutions that further complexity everything. I don't understand the comments on this thread that express excitement and enthusiasm. To this day, the UX of the linux desktop is subpar. This is caused by the complexity involved in running a gnu/linux system. We do not need additional layers of complexity. We need to collapse the layers and simplify the architecture of everything.

taeric 5y ago
Pretty sure this is a non sequitur. This isn't a desktop environment, but a desktop application to manage containers. Right?
jeffh 5y ago
I feel you hit reply on the wrong thread ... this seems to have nothing to do with Rancher Desktop?!?
yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
Rancher Desktop is > an open source app for desktop Kubernetes and container management on Mac, Windows and Linux What does that have to do with Linux desktop UX or running a GNU/Linux system? I could see objecting to k8s and containers in general on the basis of too many layers, but by the time someone's looking at using Rancher Desktop they've probably made that decision already. (For instance, this caught my eye because at work we ship everything in containers. Even if I disliked that, there's no way I'm ever moving the whole company off containerization, so I want the best tools to do the job I have.)
- hsn915 5y ago
  I was meta-commenting about other comments in this thread that imply the future of desktop is all containers and that this would be a good thing.

tokumei 5y ago

These desktop applications look nice, but personally I’m much more comfortable with CLI tools. I have no idea what my colleagues are doing that use GUI git programs. I can’t even stand editor integration plugins. Edit: On topic, just test k8s config changes in prod :^)

lucasyvas 5y ago
You need Docker Desktop on macOS and Windows even if you don't want it. Please, send help :(
- carlreid 5y ago
  For Windows, you can run docker in WSL at least. It's also easy to install using the script at https://get.docker.com https://get.docker.com. It will warn you about WSL and recommend Docker Desktop for Windows, which is funny since Docker Desktop can also run docker for you in WSL.
  - capableweb 5y ago
    Could you really claim that installing Docker via WSL is actually running Docker on Windows? It's really hard for me to claim such. Rather, you're installing/running Docker via Ubuntu (or whatever image you use), while Windows is the host.
    - tyingq 5y ago
      I think the context was replying to "You Need Docker Desktop", which used to be true with WSL1. WSL2 opens up the option to run regular Docker in the WSL2 instance, which doesn't have to be Ubuntu, but could be.
    - resizeitplz 5y ago
      Sure you can. WSL abstracts a lot of the networking/integration between the host and VM, just like Docker Desktop does. The experiences are comparable.
5y ago

rjzzleep 5y ago

What's the state of Rancher these days? I was handing over a clients project and looking for someone to maintain it long term. I chose Rancher in my ignorance, but all Rancher did was tank the project. They installed their own halfbaked inhouse CloudNative Storage Provider, then quoted the client 50k to try to stabilize it. Their sales people were also nonstop trying to sell them on more consulting hours on top of the 50k they were taking in license fee for a 3 node cluster. The whole thing left such a bad taste in my mouth that whenever I see Rancher I tell my clients to look for other options and run away as far as possible. Now that Suse owns them I'm a bit more open to it, but I imagine there are still a lot of old rancher people in there. Can anyone enlighten me on the current state of affairs?

qeternity 5y ago
We use rancher for a few clusters. The new UI a overhaul is atrocious and is very broken.
bbunix 5y ago
The latest version 2.6 has an issue where it can lose track of the cluster state, rendering it useless. (You had one job Rancher).
CasperDern 5y ago
UI looks nice but is janky. Documentation is lacking, but sufficient. Longhorn works great (if you ignore CPU usage due to syncing when there's a lot of IOPS). Overal though self-hosting it has been pretty great for us from a usability perspective. Not sure if it's as enterprise-ready as they say though. Also haven't had to deal with their sales/support (yet).
arcastroe 5y ago
I self-host rancher 2.6 for personal use and maintain a 3-node cluster. I find it enjoyable to work with though I only host ~13 different web applications: private docker registry, gitea, drone, plex media server, sagemath through jupyter, and a few personal projects. It's probably unnecessary/overkill for single-user like myself, but so far I like it

dang 5y ago

A related thread from a few months ago: Rancher Desktop, a Docker Desktop Replacement - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28835690 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28835690 - Oct 2021 (220 comments)

Shadonototra 5y ago

can't we do better than electron? seriously? a whole freaking browser only just to display few sliders, combobox and buttons? this is very sad and concerning, either people are clueless, or they are clueless, i see no other reasons; you really not care at all, do you? you use go already, use that https://fyne.io/ https://fyne.io/

seabrookmx 5y ago
Such a tiresome argument. We need a whole freaking browser, only to display some text on this Web 1.0 hackernews website? If the tool works well and doesn't use too many resources (see: VS Code, Spotify, Postman, among others that use a "browser" based UI), why does it matter? Let developers choose the tools they want to build the things they want to build. You want a k8s desktop app written in fyne-io? Go for it!
- Shadonototra 5y ago
  > If the tool works well and doesn't use too many resources (see: VS Code, Spotify, Postman, among others that use a "browser" based UI), why does it matter? hahaha, i see, it's a lost battle, bloaters of computers, you won hope you not from EU, i would be ashamed > Let developers choose the tools they want to build the things they want to build. You want a k8s desktop app written in fyne-io? Go for it! slave mindset, empower the idiocracy, never give feedack, never stand up when you think wrong things, negative feedback = troll obviously reminds me of a packed bus, there was that random drunk dude harassing that other random guy everyone stood silent that's our society, and that's why it's trash another startup with 100M in VC funding and generates 1k dollar in profit but i am wrong, i always am wrong
  - seabrookmx 5y ago
    > reminds me of a packed bus, there was that random drunk dude harassing that other random guy > everyone stood silent Hardly. I have no problem with you stating your opinion, and would not downvote anyone for doing so. I'm simply saying that I hear this opinion all the time and don't agree with it. > hope you not from EU, i would be ashamed Not sure how my country of origin is at all relevant here, but.. OK.

capableweb 5y ago

It's unclear from this website or the landing page of Rancher Desktop, can I use this to just run containers without involving the bloated mess which is Kubernetes? I just want to have something to run the container runtime cross-platform locally, without involving Kubernetes as I already run a different service for container management on my servers.

ginko 5y ago

Am I the only one that's starting to get a bit annoyed when random software for the desktop is getting called "XYZ Desktop"? I came here expecting a new desktop environment or WM called 'Rancher'.

lioeters 5y ago
I agree, it should be called "XYZ for Desktop".
lf-non 5y ago
It is an indicator of mindset shift in the larger populance. In a word where mobile and web apps are becoming more and more popular, calling a product a 'software solution' or an 'app' does not immediately make it obvious where the software will run. Adding the word desktop makes it stand out to the audience who is looking for desktop software (and presumably who don't want to setup server side software, fiddle with cli or use an externally hosted orchestration service). I recommend embracing the new reality that a vast majority of consumer grade software in present day world does not target desktops.
bzzzt 5y ago
I think the 'desktop' naming convention is older than most OSS WM's/desktop environments, it was even used for games: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Jones_and_His_Desktop_Adventures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Jones_and_His_Desktop_... (now that would be a great name for a WM ;) )

steeve 5y ago

The killer feature over Docker for Mac would be memory ballooning. With this, there would be no need to specify a specific amount of memory, and the Linux VM would live happily alongside Mac OS. I know this is a limitation of Virtualisation/Hypervisor Framework apparently, but still. It works wonder on WSL2, for instance. Assigning all CPUs shouldn't do anything impactful really.