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Docker

174K
139.8K
+ 1
3.9K
Nix

522
109
+ 1
0
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Docker vs Nix: What are the differences?

<Write Introduction here>

1. **Resource Management**: Docker utilizes a containerization approach to manage resources, allowing for the isolation of applications and services within their own environments. On the other hand, Nix focuses on functional package management, providing a declarative and reproducible way of managing software packages and system configurations.

2. **Isolation Mechanism**: Docker employs lightweight containers that share the host system's kernel, enabling efficient resource utilization and rapid deployment of applications. In contrast, Nix utilizes a functional approach to package management, ensuring reproducibility by building packages in isolated environments and avoiding conflicts with system libraries.

3. **Approach to Dependency Management**: Docker uses images and containers to package and run applications along with their dependencies, making it easier to build and distribute software across different environments. Nix, however, relies on a purely functional package manager to resolve dependencies and manage software configurations, ensuring consistent and reproducible builds.

4. **Scope of Application**: Docker is widely used for containerizing applications and microservices, facilitating scalable and portable deployments across various platforms. Nix, on the other hand, is preferred for managing system configurations and software packages in a functional and declarative manner, ensuring reliability and reproducibility in a system's setup.

5. **Community Support**: Docker has a large and active community that develops and shares container images, tools, and best practices, making it easier for users to leverage and adopt containerization technologies. In contrast, Nix has a smaller but dedicated community focused on functional package management and reproducibility, providing robust support for managing software dependencies and system configurations.

6. **Workflow Integration**: Docker integrates seamlessly with popular DevOps tools and platforms, streamlining the deployment and management of applications in continuous integration and continuous delivery pipelines. Nix, on the other hand, offers integration with build systems and tools for building and deploying software packages in a reproducible and consistent manner.

In Summary, Docker and Nix differ in their resource management approaches, isolation mechanisms, dependency management strategies, application scopes, community support, and workflow integrations.
Decisions about Docker and Nix
Florian Sager
IT DevOp at Agitos GmbH · | 3 upvotes · 451.3K views
Chose
LXDLXD
over
DockerDocker

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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Pros of Docker
Pros of Nix
  • 823
    Rapid integration and build up
  • 692
    Isolation
  • 521
    Open source
  • 505
    Testa­bil­i­ty and re­pro­ducibil­i­ty
  • 460
    Lightweight
  • 218
    Standardization
  • 185
    Scalable
  • 106
    Upgrading / down­grad­ing / ap­pli­ca­tion versions
  • 88
    Security
  • 85
    Private paas environments
  • 34
    Portability
  • 26
    Limit resource usage
  • 17
    Game changer
  • 16
    I love the way docker has changed virtualization
  • 14
    Fast
  • 12
    Concurrency
  • 8
    Docker's Compose tools
  • 6
    Fast and Portable
  • 6
    Easy setup
  • 5
    Because its fun
  • 4
    Makes shipping to production very simple
  • 3
    It's dope
  • 3
    Highly useful
  • 2
    Does a nice job hogging memory
  • 2
    Open source and highly configurable
  • 2
    Simplicity, isolation, resource effective
  • 2
    MacOS support FAKE
  • 2
    Its cool
  • 2
    Docker hub for the FTW
  • 2
    HIgh Throughput
  • 2
    Very easy to setup integrate and build
  • 2
    Package the environment with the application
  • 2
    Super
  • 0
    Asdfd
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    Cons of Docker
    Cons of Nix
    • 8
      New versions == broken features
    • 6
      Unreliable networking
    • 6
      Documentation not always in sync
    • 4
      Moves quickly
    • 3
      Not Secure
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      What is Docker?

      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

      What is Nix?

      It makes package management reliable and reproducible. It provides atomic upgrades and rollbacks, side-by-side installation of multiple versions of a package, multi-user package management and easy setup of build environments.

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      What companies use Docker?
      What companies use Nix?
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      What tools integrate with Docker?
      What tools integrate with Nix?

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      What are some alternatives to Docker and Nix?
      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.
      Kubernetes
      Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers. It handles scheduling onto nodes in a compute cluster and actively manages workloads to ensure that their state matches the users declared intentions.
      Cloud Foundry
      Cloud Foundry is an open platform as a service (PaaS) that provides a choice of clouds, developer frameworks, and application services. Cloud Foundry makes it faster and easier to build, test, deploy, and scale applications.
      Vagrant
      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.
      See all alternatives