Install docker

Regardless of your operating system, docker requires linux to operate. When used on a different operating system, docker relies on virtual machines to build and run images.

There are two main types of docker installations:

• docker engine is the usual docker command line application
• docker desktop is a GUI app that also manages virtualization

Here’s what we suggest:

• If you’re on linux, install docker engine using your package manager
• If you’re on MacOS / Windows, install docker desktop if you are allowed to
• If you’re on windows and want to get docker running within WSL, or can’t use docker desktop, follow the docker on WSL tutorial
• If you’re on MacOS and can’t use docker desktop, follow the MacOS colima tutorial

Docker on WSL

This install option is very useful, as it allows having a perfectly normal linux install of docker engine inside WSL, which can still be reached from windows.

• Install WSL (If you had an old version of WSL, run wsl --upgrade)
• Get an operating system image from the microsoft store (for example, debian or ubuntu)
• Enable systemd support within the WSL VM
• Follow the regular linux install tutorial for docker
• If you have docker desktop installed, you can configure it to use WSL

MacOS colima

This procedure allows installing docker without relying on docker desktop. It uses colima for virtualizing linux.

1. Install homebrew
2. brew install docker docker-compose colima
3. Install the compose plugin: mkdir -p ~/.docker/cli-plugins && ln -sfn $(brew --prefix)/opt/docker-compose/bin/docker-compose ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose
4. Configure colima:

• for apple silicon (M1/M2) macbooks: colima start --cpu 2 --memory 6 --arch aarch64 --vm-type=vz --vz-rosetta --mount-type=virtiofs
• for small infrastructures: colima start --cpu 2 --memory 4
• for big infrastructures: colima start --cpu 2 --memory 6

5. brew services start colima to automatically start colima on startup
6. Exit your terminal, open a new one
7. You can now use docker CLI