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Docker actually ships their easy-to-use and commercially supported Docker Desktop product for macOS, which uses Apple's standard virtualization framework under

Docker actually ships their easy-to-use and commercially supported Docker Desktop product for macOS, which uses Apple's standard virtualization framework under the hood. I think it then runs the Docker containers within a Linux VM that it manages. For people who want an open-source CLI solution rather than a commercial product which for larger businesses requires payment, there's also colima which does roughly the same thing. So, lots of people very successfully use Docker on macOS, including on Apple hardware. This particular software would need nested virtualization to be highly performant, but at least on M3 or newer Macs running macOS 15 or newer, this is now supported by Apple's virtualization framework: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/virtualization/vzgenericplatformconfiguration/4360552-isnestedvirtualizationenabled?changes=latest_minor https://developer.apple.com/documentation/virtualization/vzg... So, if that's not easy to do in a useful and performant way now, it will absolutely be possible in the foreseeable future. I'm sure that the longtime macOS virtualization product Parallels Desktop will add support for nested virtualization quite soon if they haven't already, in addition to whatever Docker Desktop and colima do. (Tangent: Asahi Linux apparently supports nested virtualization on M2 chips even though macOS doesn't.)

nine_k 2y ago
Running Linux in a VM (for Docker) to run an emulator (QEMU) in it to run macOS in that looks to me like a senseless waste of resources. Linux and Docker add no value into the mix here. The same result can be achieved by running macOS right in the VM. This can be extra efficient since both the host OS and the guest OS are macOS, and the VM could use this fact. It may make sense to run macOS in an emulator like QEMU under macOS, if the host version us ARM and the guest version is x64 (or vice versa). But I don't see where Linux and Docker would be useful in this case.
- jkaplowitz 2y ago
  I agree the particular combo I was discussing is likely not very useful when compared to just directly virtualizing macOS directly, except in niche cases. One such case, however, is when the user is already managing Linux Docker containers for other parts of their development or testing workflow and wants to manage macOS containers with the same tooling. That’s legitimate enough, especially when it ends up supporting nested virtualization of the same architecture and not true emulation, to keep the performance penalty modest enough.

nine_k 2y ago

Running Linux in a VM (for Docker) to run an emulator (QEMU) in it to run macOS in that looks to me like a senseless waste of resources. Linux and Docker add no value into the mix here. The same result can be achieved by running macOS right in the VM. This can be extra efficient since both the host OS and the guest OS are macOS, and the VM could use this fact. It may make sense to run macOS in an emulator like QEMU under macOS, if the host version us ARM and the guest version is x64 (or vice versa). But I don't see where Linux and Docker would be useful in this case.

jkaplowitz 2y ago
I agree the particular combo I was discussing is likely not very useful when compared to just directly virtualizing macOS directly, except in niche cases. One such case, however, is when the user is already managing Linux Docker containers for other parts of their development or testing workflow and wants to manage macOS containers with the same tooling. That’s legitimate enough, especially when it ends up supporting nested virtualization of the same architecture and not true emulation, to keep the performance penalty modest enough.