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boot2docker vs Vagrant: What are the differences?
Developers describe boot2docker as "Lightweight Linux for Docker". boot2docker is a lightweight Linux distribution based on Tiny Core Linux made specifically to run Docker containers. It runs completely from RAM, weighs ~27MB and boots in ~5s (YMMV). On the other hand, Vagrant is detailed as "A tool for building and distributing development environments". Vagrant provides the framework and configuration format to create and manage complete portable development environments. These development environments can live on your computer or in the cloud, and are portable between Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
boot2docker and Vagrant can be categorized as "Virtual Machine Management" tools.
Some of the features offered by boot2docker are:
- Kernel 3.14.1 with AUFS, Docker 0.10.1, LXC 0.8.0
- Container persistence via disk automount on /var/lib/docker
- SSH keys persistence via disk automount
On the other hand, Vagrant provides the following key features:
- Boxes
- Up And SSH
- Synced Folders
"Lightweight" is the primary reason why developers consider boot2docker over the competitors, whereas "Development environments" was stated as the key factor in picking Vagrant.
boot2docker and Vagrant are both open source tools. Vagrant with 18.6K GitHub stars and 3.74K forks on GitHub appears to be more popular than boot2docker with 7.99K GitHub stars and 1.14K GitHub forks.
According to the StackShare community, Vagrant has a broader approval, being mentioned in 802 company stacks & 478 developers stacks; compared to boot2docker, which is listed in 70 company stacks and 30 developer stacks.
Pros of boot2docker
- Lightweight43
- Use docker when it's not natively possible35
- Use it for fast demo without big image11
- Easy to use3
- Containers3
Pros of Vagrant
- Development environments352
- Simple bootstraping290
- Free237
- Boxes139
- Provisioning130
- Portable84
- Synced folders81
- Reproducible69
- Ssh51
- Very flexible44
- Works well, can be replicated easily with other devs5
- Easy-to-share, easy-to-version dev configuration5
- Great3
- Just works3
- Quick way to get running2
- DRY - "Do Not Repeat Yourself"1
- Container Friendly1
- What is vagrant?1
- Good documentation1
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Cons of boot2docker
Cons of Vagrant
- Can become v complex w prod. provisioner (Salt, etc.)2
- Multiple VMs quickly eat up disk space2
- Development environment that kills your battery1
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What is boot2docker?
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