In this chapter, we covered what basic information you should already know (or now know) for the chapters ahead. We went over the basics of what Docker is and how it fares compared to other host types. We went over the installers, how they operate on different operating systems, and how to control them through the command line. Be sure to remember to look at the requirements for the installers to ensure you use the correct one for your operating system.

Then, we took a small dive into the basic Docker commands to get you started. We will be looking at all the management commands in future chapters to get a more in-depth understanding of what they are as well as how and when to use them. Finally, we discussed the Docker ecosystem and the responsibilities of each of the different tools.

In the next chapters, we will be taking a look at how to build base containers, and we will also look in depth at Dockerfiles and places to store your images, as well as using environmental variables and Docker volumes.