

When using Linux Containers, DfW creates a MobyLinuxVM with Hyper-V inside of which it runs Linux containers, transparently, as if they were running on the Windows 10 host.Because DfW can run both container types, there are different configurations that it sets up on your machine: So you could think of this as Docker for Windows 10. It's not meant for a production environment, and instead is meant for a desktop/client SKU of Windows, hence the Windows 10 requirement. Which means it only has the Docker Engine at the end of the day, doesn't even need to have any of the Docker clients (docker CLI, docker-compose, etc).ĭocker Desktop for Windows is a product meant for running both Linux and Windows containers on Windows. So maybe a better name is Docker for Windows Server which I believe people have used as well. This would be what you would run on a Windows Server 2016 machine. I find it helpful to think of this as a Windows Container Host, so yes Windows containers only. Will they always be different or will they ever come together?ĭocker on Windows is a colloquial way to refer to just the Docker Engine running on Windows. What features are each trying to acheive, where are they similar, where are they different.

What I'm really looking for are the stated differences bettwen the two, some sort of good comparison. One other interesting note is that Docker Tools for Visual Studio appears to only support Docker Desktop for Windows and not Docker on Windows. This also appears to be maintained by Docker. Does this support Windows containers? I don't think so, I think it only supports running Linux Docker containers. So Windows can be the Docker host but all containers are still just normal Linux containers. This also appears to be maintained by Microsoft.ĭocker for Windows appears to be a separate install created by the Docker team to bring Linux Docker to Windows. Does this support Linux? I don't think so, I think it only supports running Windows Docker containers.


Docker on Windows appears to be what's coming built into Windows Server 2016? and supports running Windows inside a Docker container and using Windows as a Docker container host.
