that's where docker failed in only copying part of what I built (they simplified it, and to an extent that was good for making a product, but I had proposed the

that's where docker failed in only copying part of what I built (they simplified it, and to an extent that was good for making a product, but I had proposed the need for (and prototyped) a container/layer aware. see https://www.usenix.org/conference/lisa11/improving-virtual-appliance-management-through-virtual-layered-file-systems https://www.usenix.org/conference/lisa11/improving-virtual-a.... the "problem" is building that layer aware linux distribution, so Docker just skipped it and relied on existing things and building each image up linearly. This was actually an advantage of CoreOS's rkt (and the ACI format), where it enabled images to be constructed from "random" layers instead of linear layers (though the primary tooling didn't really provide it and were just docker analogues, there were other tools that enabled you to manually select which layer IDs should be part of an image - but docker "won" and we were left with its linearized layer model).