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Docker vs Flatpak: What are the differences?
Developers describe Docker as "Enterprise Container Platform for High-Velocity Innovation". The Docker Platform is the industry-leading container platform for continuous, high-velocity innovation, enabling organizations to seamlessly build and share any application — from legacy to what comes next — and securely run them anywhere. On the other hand, Flatpak is detailed as "Build and distribute applications on Linux". It is a next-generation technology for building and distributing desktop applications on Linux.
Docker and Flatpak can be categorized as "Virtual Machine Platforms & Containers" tools.
Some of the features offered by Docker are:
- Integrated developer tools
- open, portable images
- shareable, reusable apps
On the other hand, Flatpak provides the following key features:
- Build for every distro - Create one app and distribute it to the entire Linux desktop market.
- Stable platforms - Runtimes provide platforms of common libraries that you can depend on.
- Consistent environments - Develop and test your application in an environment that’s identical to the one users have.
Docker is an open source tool with 55.8K GitHub stars and 16.1K GitHub forks. Here's a link to Docker's open source repository on GitHub.
lxd/lxc and Docker aren't congruent so this comparison needs a more detailed look; but in short I can say: the lxd-integrated administration of storage including zfs with its snapshot capabilities as well as the system container (multi-process) approach of lxc vs. the limited single-process container approach of Docker is the main reason I chose lxd over Docker.
Pros of Docker
- Rapid integration and build up824
- Isolation690
- Open source520
- Testability and reproducibility505
- Lightweight459
- Standardization217
- Scalable184
- Upgrading / downgrading / application versions105
- Security87
- Private paas environments84
- Portability33
- Limit resource usage25
- Game changer16
- I love the way docker has changed virtualization15
- Fast13
- Concurrency11
- Docker's Compose tools7
- Easy setup5
- Fast and Portable5
- Because its fun4
- Makes shipping to production very simple3
- It's dope2
- Highly useful2
- HIgh Throughput1
- Very easy to setup integrate and build1
- Package the environment with the application1
- Does a nice job hogging memory1
- Open source and highly configurable1
- Simplicity, isolation, resource effective1
- MacOS support FAKE1
- Its cool1
- Docker hub for the FTW1
- Super1
Pros of Flatpak
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Cons of Docker
- New versions == broken features8
- Unreliable networking6
- Documentation not always in sync6
- Moves quickly4
- Not Secure3
Cons of Flatpak
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What is Docker?
What is Flatpak?
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