Red Hat takes on Docker Desktop with its enterprise Podman Desktop build (thenewstack.io)

My Podman starts containers in arch x86-64-v3 with rosetta on for 27 seconds which Docker does it in 9s. I wonder what's wrong. I've already upgraded Mac to Tahoe (which has x86-64-v3 support included into rosetta)

I tried to use podman desktop for a bit but I ran into some screwy compatibility issues. It just wasn't as smooth as docker.

I really really want an alternative to docker desktop. I don't like the path they're going down. I don't like the AI crap in the UI. The licensing is crazy. It just doesn't feel right.

So I've been lately using rancher by SuSE. Surprisingly, it's been all right. So far it just works. I'm using this on Mac OS.

If anybody's looking for an alternative that's one worth considering.

I personally prefer the Podman CLI however as you don't need the daemon running in the background and prefer Kubernetes like yamls for local development. I definitely don't need a polished desktop GUI that shows me how many images I have though - I've never understood the use case for that.

I love podman. it’s my default whenever i need to run containers locally. Ive also used it to run containerized systemd services.

Selling enterprise licenses is a smart move from Redhat: they actually build/contribute to production grade container orchestration platforms like openshift. Unlike Docker Inc which looks like it only has the docker registry and Docker Desktop.

It's unclear to me from this post, or Red Hat's announcement[0] what makes it an enterprise build, aside from offering some support SLA.

Are there any material differences between this and the free OSS Podman Desktop[1] released 4 years ago?

0: https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/introducing-red-hat-build-pod... 1: https://podman-desktop.io/

The best alternative to Docker Desktop on macOS is to abandon the GUI entirely use colima to create the linux VM.

    brew install colima docker docker-buildx docker-completion docker-compose
    export DOCKER_HOST="$HOME/.colima/docker.sock" >> ~/.zshrc
    source ~/.zshrc
    colima start --cpus 8 --vz-rosetta --ssh-agent --mount $HOME:w

then add this line to your $HOME/.docker/config.json

    "cliPluginsExtraDirs": ["/opt/homebrew/lib/docker/cli-plugins"],

that will get you a fast virtiofs VM with the latest docker, including compose and buildx. it may seem scary to replace an officially blessed tool like Docker Desktop, but i have had zero issues with colima. it isn't "docker compatible". it's docker. just need to run `brew upgrade` and `colima update` every once in a while to keep it up to date.

Is anyone paying for this things?

Man, I feel bad for Docker, the company. Created the open source project that almost single-handely revolutionized deployments, development environments, and cloud computing, but sorta never managed to stick a product.

Never saw the point of these desktop apps. Docker (and podman) works just fine from the CLI only.

Is Podman still not supported natively on macOS?

Congratulations to the Podman Desktop team. They’ve worked hard on the product, Red Hats processes for launching a new offering include some daunting gates. Good job, team.

I built Zenithal [1] after getting frustrated with Docker Desktop's resource usage and the direction they've been going with AI features and licensing. It's a native macOS app(SwiftUI, no Electron) that manages Docker containers, Compose projects.

Key differences from the tools mentioned here: - Native macOS app (SwiftUI, no Electron) — uses Lima under the hood as a lightweight VM runtime instead of Docker Desktop's bundled VM. No Electron, no heavy resource usage. - Built-in Compose visual builder — edit your docker-compose.yml visually

Free tier covers basic container management. Happy to answer questions.

https://www.empiricapps.com

I built Zenithal - https://www.empiricapps.com/zenithal/download after getting frustrated with Docker Desktop's resource usage and the direction they've been going with AI features and licensing. It's a native macOS app(SwiftUI, no Electron) that manages Docker containers, Compose projects, and Kubernetes clusters.

Key differences from the tools mentioned here: - Native macOS app (SwiftUI, no Electron) — uses Lima under the hood as a lightweight VM runtime instead of Docker Desktop's bundled VM. No Electron, no heavy resource usage. - Built-in Compose visual builder — edit your docker-compose.yml visually - K8s management alongside Docker in the same UI - Zero dependencies beyond Apple frameworks

Free tier covers basic container management. Happy to answer questions.