Docker wraps a micro Linux with the hypervisor framework to build a native application on macOS, which means we don't need third-party virtualization tools to use Docker on a Mac. To benefit from the hypervisor framework, you must upgrade your macOS to version 10.10.3 or more:
- Download the Docker package and install it: https://download.docker.com/mac/stable/Docker.dmg.
Docker for Windows requires no third-party tools either. Check for the installation guide at the following link: https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-windows/install.
- You're now in Docker. Try creating and running your very first Docker container. Run the command with sudo if you're on Linux:
$ docker run alpine ls
bin dev etc home lib media mnt proc root run sbin srv sys tmp usr var
- You'll see that you're under a root directory instead of your current one. Let's check the process list again:
$ docker run alpine ps aux
PID USER TIME COMMAND
1 root 0:00 ps aux
It's isolated, as expected. You're now all ready to work with the container.
Alpine is a Linux distribution. Since it's really small in size, many people use it as their base image to build their application container. Do note, however, that it still has a few differences from mainstream Linux distributions. For example, Alpine uses musl libc, while most distributions use glibc.