Overview

Docker

Stacks194.2K

Followers143.8K

Votes3.9K

Flatpak

Stacks7

Followers9

Votes0

Docker vs Flatpak: What are the differences?

Introduction

Docker and Flatpak are both containerization technologies that provide a way to package and distribute software applications with their dependencies. While they share some similarities, there are several key differences between Docker and Flatpak that make them suitable for different use cases.

Architecture: Docker uses a client-server architecture, where the Docker engine runs on a host machine and manages containers. This architecture allows for efficient resource utilization by sharing the host's operating system kernel among containers. On the other hand, Flatpak follows a single-user, sandboxed architecture, where each Flatpak application runs in its own isolated runtime environment. This isolation provides enhanced security and stability for applications.
Portability: Docker is primarily designed for running server-side applications and allows for the deployment of applications across different infrastructure environments, such as physical machines, virtual machines, or cloud platforms. This makes Docker highly portable and suitable for containerizing microservices or distributed applications. Flatpak, on the other hand, focuses on desktop applications and aims to provide a consistent user experience across different Linux distributions. It achieves this by bundling all required dependencies along with the application, ensuring compatibility across different Linux distributions.
Isolation: Docker containers make use of operating system-level virtualization, which provides a lightweight form of isolation between containers and the host system. This isolation enables containers to run multiple applications or services independently and securely. In contrast, Flatpak applications are run in a sandboxed environment using namespaces and cgroups. The sandboxing restricts the application's access to system resources, enhancing security and preventing interference with the host system.
Application Packaging: Docker packages applications and their dependencies into images, which can be easily shared and deployed. Docker images are created using Dockerfiles, which specify the steps needed to build the application environment. Flatpak, on the other hand, uses Flatpak manifests, which provide information about the application and its dependencies. Flatpak applications are distributed as compressed bundles, containing the application runtime and dependencies, making them self-contained and easily portable.
Community and Ecosystem: Docker has a large and active community, with extensive documentation, tutorials, and a wide range of images available in the Docker Hub. It also has robust integration with various orchestration tools like Kubernetes. This makes Docker a popular choice for containerization in enterprise environments. While Flatpak has a growing community, it is more focused on the desktop application space. It provides integration with user-friendly platforms like GNOME Software, making it easier for developers to distribute and users to install Flatpak applications.
Dependency Management: Docker provides a flexible mechanism for managing dependencies through its layer-based image system. Docker images can be built incrementally, and each layer can be cached and reused, reducing the time and bandwidth required for deployment. Flatpak adopts a different approach by bundling dependencies directly with the application. This ensures that the application runs with the specified runtime environment, without relying on the availability of system-wide dependencies. However, this bundling approach can lead to larger application sizes and increased storage requirements.

In summary, Docker is a versatile containerization technology suitable for running server-side applications across different environments, while Flatpak focuses on providing a secure and consistent desktop application experience. Docker emphasizes portability and scalability, while Flatpak prioritizes isolation, ease of distribution, and compatibility across Linux distributions.

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Advice on Docker, Flatpak

Florian

IT DevOp at Agitos GmbH

Oct 22, 2019

Decided

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.

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Detailed Comparison

Docker	Flatpak
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	It is a next-generation technology for building and distributing desktop applications on Linux
Integrated developer tools; open, portable images; shareable, reusable apps; framework-aware builds; standardized templates; multi-environment support; remote registry management; simple setup for Docker and Kubernetes; certified Kubernetes; application templates; enterprise controls; secure software supply chain; industry-leading container runtime; image scanning; access controls; image signing; caching and mirroring; image lifecycle; policy-based image promotion	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.; Full control over dependencies - Flatpak makes it easy to bundle your own libraries as part of your app.; Easy build tools - Flatpak’s build tools are simple and easy to use, and come with a full set of documentation.; Future-proof builds - Flatpak apps continue to be compatible with new versions of Linux distributions.; Distribution made easy - Make your app available to a rapidly growing audience of Flatpak users, with Flathub.; An independent project - Flatpak is developed by an independent community, with no lock-in to a single vendor.
Statistics
Stacks 194.2K	Stacks 7
Followers 143.8K	Followers 9
Votes 3.9K	Votes 0
Pros & Cons
Pros 823 Rapid integration and build up 692 Isolation 521 Open source 505 Testability and reproducibility 460 Lightweight Cons 8 New versions == broken features 6 Documentation not always in sync 6 Unreliable networking 4 Moves quickly 3 Not Secure	No community feedback yet
Integrations
Java Docker Compose VirtualBox Linux Amazon EC2 Container Service Docker Swarm boot2docker Kubernetes Docker Machine Vagrant	No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Docker, Flatpak?

LXD

LXD isn't a rewrite of LXC, in fact it's building on top of LXC to provide a new, better user experience. Under the hood, LXD uses LXC through liblxc and its Go binding to create and manage the containers. It's basically an alternative to LXC's tools and distribution template system with the added features that come from being controllable over the network.

LXC

LXC is a userspace interface for the Linux kernel containment features. Through a powerful API and simple tools, it lets Linux users easily create and manage system or application containers.

rkt

Rocket is a cli for running App Containers. The goal of rocket is to be composable, secure, and fast.

Vagrant Cloud

Vagrant Cloud pairs with Vagrant to enable access, insight and collaboration across teams, as well as to bring exposure to community contributions and development environments.

Studio 3T

It's the only MongoDB tool that provides three ways to explore data alongside powerful features like query autocompletion, polyglot code generation, a stage-by-stage aggregation query builder, import and export, SQL query support and more.

OpenVZ

Virtuozzo leverages OpenVZ as its core of a virtualization solution offered by Virtuozzo company. Virtuozzo is optimized for hosters and offers hypervisor (VMs in addition to containers), distributed cloud storage, dedicated support, management tools, and easy installation.

SmartOS

It combines the capabilities you get from a lightweight container OS, optimized to deliver containers, with the robust security, networking and storage capabilities you’ve come to expect and depend on from a hardware hypervisor.

Clear Containers

We set out to build Clear Containers by leveraging the isolation of virtual-machine technology along with the deployment benefits of containers. As part of this, we let go of the "generic PC hardware" notion traditionally associated with virtual machines; we're not going to pretend to be a standard PC that is compatible with just about any OS on the planet.

Lima

It launches Linux virtual machines with automatic file sharing, port forwarding, and containerd. It can be considered as some sort of unofficial "macOS subsystem for Linux", or "containerd for Mac". It is expected to be used on macOS hosts, but can be used on Linux hosts as well. It may work on NetBSD and Windows hosts as well.