We started with plain Docker Compose files (one container for our project, others for DB, Spark, Airflow, etc.). For more experienced, full-time developers this

We started with plain Docker Compose files (one container for our project, others for DB, Spark, Airflow, etc.). For more experienced, full-time developers this setup was good enough (though it required a few extra steps after `docker compose up`). But it still showed significant friction for (a) very junior developers (b) non technical business people who wanted to code. Generally the same folks that would need help installing PostGIS on their machines, etc. People just wanted to merge some cool ideas into our codebases and now they needed to learn wtf Docker and Docker Compose are[1]. That was a huge time waster. Devcontainers are neatly integrated into VS Code's UI, so they solved the "last mile" problem of allowing non-tech folks to use containers. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbSehcT19u0&themeRefresh=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbSehcT19u0&themeRefresh=1