> The fact that containers are such a simple technology But they're really not. This is a common misconception because of the user friendliness of Docker, but

> The fact that containers are such a simple technology But they're really not. This is a common misconception because of the user friendliness of Docker, but underneath all that there are many moving parts that the Linux kernel exposes, which are tricky to manage manually, and additional features of Docker itself (Dockerfile, layered images, distribution, etc.). Sure, you can write a shell script that does a tiny fraction of what container tools do, but then you'd have a half-baked solution that reinvents the wheel because... it's lighterweight? What TFA is doing is fine if you want to learn how containers work and impress your colleagues, but for real world usage, stick to the established tooling. Like others mentioned, there are ways to do what you propose, and you can always create your own container tool based on that shell script that automates this :). Though you might be interested in unikernels, which is an extreme version of that approach using VMs.