5 ms·
Red Hat takes on Docker Desktop with its enterprise Podman Desktop build
- throwaway613746 7mo agoNever saw the point of these desktop apps. Docker (and podman) works just fine from the CLI only.
- p0w3n3d 7mo agoMy Podman starts containers in arch x86-64-v3 with rosetta on for 27 seconds which Docker does it in 9s. I wonder what's wrong. I've already upgraded Mac to Tahoe (which has x86-64-v3 support included into rosetta)
- cdrage 7mo agoAhhh, one of the reasons could be that Docker Desktop by default uses 50% of your RAM when they create their VM and the maximum amount of CPUs. Podman Desktop by default has a much lower RAM (4GB) + CPU usage (50% CPU). That's something that could be improved... I've opened up an issue: https://github.com/podman-desktop/podman-desktop/issues/16349 https://github.com/podman-desktop/podman-desktop/issues/1634... :)
- p0w3n3d 7mo agoNo I checked it against the amount of RAM. Podman with 8GB does not increase speed, Docker with 4GB is still 9s podman run 27->24 docker run 9.4->9.769 total (I increased limit in podman and decreased limit in docker). This happens with amd64 arch images (which I for some reason need in my work and cannot rebuild)
- cdrage 7mo agonow I'm curious why it's still slow even with the increase of ram + cpu, I'll sync up with the podman core team why it's benchmarking much faster in docker vs podman (assuming both are using rosetta 2 on your machine)
- newsoftheday 7mo ago> now I'm curious why it's still slow even with the increase of ram + cpu Because podman doesn't work as well as docker.
- p0w3n3d 7mo agoI have double checked if my rosetta is enabled. I also requrested using "apple virtualization" instead of libkrun
- p0w3n3d 7mo agoare you by any chance one of those Claw raging robots? really? created an issue?
- bootsmann 7mo ago(The poster works on podman for redhat)
- worthless-trash 7mo agoPretty sure this guy works in that project.
- bityard 7mo agoThere is definitely something wrong with your setup. I can run an amd64 container on my Macbook Pro M3 in well under a second: [~]$ podman pull --arch=amd64 debian:13 Resolved "debian" as an alias (/etc/containers/registries.conf.d/000-shortnames.conf) Trying to pull docker.io/library/debian:13... Getting image source signatures Copying blob sha256:866771c43bf5eb77362eeeb163c0c825e194c2806d0b697028434e3b9c02f59d Copying config sha256:a3624ddeb711bef28c29e6de1502fc3ef9df132c220d1db5a121b2a1e2a74256 Writing manifest to image destination a3624ddeb711bef28c29e6de1502fc3ef9df132c220d1db5a121b2a1e2a74256 [~]$ time podman run --rm -ti debian:13 uname -m WARNING: image platform (linux/amd64) does not match the expected platform (linux/arm64) x86_64 podman run --rm -ti debian:13 uname -m 0.03s user 0.02s system 9% cpu 0.456 total
- p0w3n3d 7mo agoI've checked and there is no difference between podman and docker on my machine. However when running a spring boot over eclipse-temurin:25-jdk-ubi10-minimal image there is this huge difference podman run 0.02s user 0.01s system 0% cpu 24.960 total you can see the java app starting slowly. I've double checked that rosetta is enabled on podman. % podman machine inspect podman-machine-default ... "Rootful": true, "Rosetta": true } ]
- bmurphy1976 7mo agoI tried to use podman desktop for a bit but I ran into some screwy compatibility issues. It just wasn't as smooth as docker. I really really want an alternative to docker desktop. I don't like the path they're going down. I don't like the AI crap in the UI. The licensing is crazy. It just doesn't feel right. So I've been lately using rancher by SuSE. Surprisingly, it's been all right. So far it just works. I'm using this on Mac OS. If anybody's looking for an alternative that's one worth considering.
- cdrage 7mo agoWhat sort of compatibility issues were you encountering? (disclaimer: I'm on the Podman Desktop team) If it was compose + docker compatibility issues, that's on the roadmap for improvement :). Compose support is flakey at times (it's essentially a wrapper around the open source binary https://github.com/docker/compose https://github.com/docker/compose)
- enlightens 7mo agoThe most common one I run into is with volumes, when the full path doesn't already exist. Docker will just make the path, Podman throws an error. It's been called a "bug" in docker but the fact is everyone just expects the paths to be created. I want it to just work, not make everyone in the industry redo their dockerfiles to be "correct." https://github.com/containers/podman/issues/6234 https://github.com/containers/podman/issues/6234 It looks like there was some work done to resolve this in 2023 and 2024 but I know this was still happening for me in mid 2025. Podman is technically correct here but functionally broken in a way that keeps pushing me away because I don't have time to deal with that :(
- lukeschlather 7mo agoRunning a docker container having side effects on the host seems bad. You've just convinced me a little bit I want podman, and not docker.
- 7mo ago
- osigurdson 7mo agoI personally prefer the Podman CLI however as you don't need the daemon running in the background and prefer Kubernetes like yamls for local development. I definitely don't need a polished desktop GUI that shows me how many images I have though - I've never understood the use case for that.
- dec0dedab0de 7mo agoSame. I switched to podman just so I don't have to troubleshoot why the docker daemon isn't running again.
- newsoftheday 7mo agoUsed docker for over a decade, never ran into this docker daemon intermittently stops running issue.
- pm90 7mo agoI love podman. it’s my default whenever i need to run containers locally. Ive also used it to run containerized systemd services. Selling enterprise licenses is a smart move from Redhat: they actually build/contribute to production grade container orchestration platforms like openshift. Unlike Docker Inc which looks like it only has the docker registry and Docker Desktop.
- ImJasonH 7mo agoIt's unclear to me from this post, or Red Hat's announcement[0] what makes it an enterprise build, aside from offering some support SLA. Are there any material differences between this and the free OSS Podman Desktop[1] released 4 years ago? 0: https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/introducing-red-hat-build-podman-desktop-enterprise-ready-local-container-development-environments https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/introducing-red-hat-build-pod... 1: https://podman-desktop.io/ https://podman-desktop.io/
- fred_is_fred 7mo agoIsn't that what most enterprise software is? A number to call and some kind of contract on it?
- y0ssar1an 7mo agoThe best alternative to Docker Desktop on macOS is to abandon the GUI entirely use colima to create the linux VM. brew install colima docker docker-buildx docker-completion docker-compose export DOCKER_HOST="$HOME/.colima/docker.sock" >> ~/.zshrc source ~/.zshrc colima start --cpus 8 --vz-rosetta --ssh-agent --mount $HOME:w then add this line to your $HOME/.docker/config.json "cliPluginsExtraDirs": ["/opt/homebrew/lib/docker/cli-plugins"], that will get you a fast virtiofs VM with the latest docker, including compose and buildx. it may seem scary to replace an officially blessed tool like Docker Desktop, but i have had zero issues with colima. it isn't "docker compatible". it's docker. just need to run `brew upgrade` and `colima update` every once in a while to keep it up to date.
- jaimehrubiks 7mo agoDoes this support volume bind mounts and port forwarding?
- Alifatisk 7mo agoYou can see the command above mounting a volume ”—mount $HOME:w”
- eknkc 7mo agoI’ve been using OrbStack instead of Docker Desktop and gotta say, I’d not replace it with anything else. So if anyones looking for a more automated alternative, check out OrbStack.
- cathalc 7mo agoI hear great things about OrbStack; unfortunately the licensing tied to their free offering doesn't play nicely with corporate environments (and we're cheap!). I switched to Colima instead and couldn't be happier.
- stock_toaster 7mo agoI you fancy needing a GUI, rancher desktop is decent.
- drchaim 7mo agoIs anyone paying for this things?
- tonnydourado 7mo agoMan, I feel bad for Docker, the company. Created the open source project that almost single-handely revolutionized deployments, development environments, and cloud computing, but sorta never managed to stick a product.
- giancarlostoro 7mo agoI'm equally shocked nobody has bought them out to keep them well funded and not focused on trying to monetize (outside of just billing for private images). Every cloud provider like CloudFlare (I think?), Azure, AWS, GCP, etc benefit from Docker, it seems like a no brainer to me... You would then condense the org to just developers and PMs. Then marketing and other employees could be shifted to another part of the parent org and condense it down to a core group that builds and makes the tooling stronger. I wish we had tax exceptions for companies maintaining open-source projects full time to be reasonable write offs or something, with strict checks so companies dont just make random "open source" projects to write off, it should be something with known sizable impact and/or use, it would make some critical open source projects attractive "buy outs" or options to fully fund for some of these giants that benefit from them. Imagine if the devs entire salary (up to a point) could be written off completely. Some of these people are working on key infrastructure for the modern web, and even other critical systems, think of Chromium (tricky because of Chrome being not-open source but a proprietary end-product), Firefox, Linux, openssl, and obviously Docker, as good example.
- ragall 7mo ago> Every cloud provider [...] benefit from Docker How ? Docker didn't invent the underlying technology and can't control it (through patents, etc...). It's all open and Docker tools are just the most popular but there are alternatives. Why pay when you can get it for free ?
- giancarlostoro 7mo agoTo keep it maintained.
- blell 7mo agoIs Podman still not supported natively on macOS?
- RickJWagner 7mo agoCongratulations to the Podman Desktop team. They’ve worked hard on the product, Red Hats processes for launching a new offering include some daunting gates. Good job, team.
- mburlac 7mo agoI built Zenithal [1] after getting frustrated with Docker Desktop's resource usage and the direction they've been going with AI features and licensing. It's a native macOS app(SwiftUI, no Electron) that manages Docker containers, Compose projects. Key differences from the tools mentioned here: - Native macOS app (SwiftUI, no Electron) — uses Lima under the hood as a lightweight VM runtime instead of Docker Desktop's bundled VM. No Electron, no heavy resource usage. - Built-in Compose visual builder — edit your docker-compose.yml visually Free tier covers basic container management. Happy to answer questions. https://www.empiricapps.com https://www.empiricapps.com
- mburlac 7mo agoI built Zenithal - https://www.empiricapps.com/zenithal/download https://www.empiricapps.com/zenithal/download after getting frustrated with Docker Desktop's resource usage and the direction they've been going with AI features and licensing. It's a native macOS app(SwiftUI, no Electron) that manages Docker containers, Compose projects, and Kubernetes clusters. Key differences from the tools mentioned here: - Native macOS app (SwiftUI, no Electron) — uses Lima under the hood as a lightweight VM runtime instead of Docker Desktop's bundled VM. No Electron, no heavy resource usage. - Built-in Compose visual builder — edit your docker-compose.yml visually - K8s management alongside Docker in the same UI - Zero dependencies beyond Apple frameworks Free tier covers basic container management. Happy to answer questions.