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> In no case is "Making it into a Docker Image" a simpler/ better distribution mechanic.

For my home server setup, I have docker containers for:

  * PiHole
  * NextCloud
  * Home Assistant
If I had to install each of those manually, I probably wouldn't have installed them. This is especially true of NextCloud, which almost certainly would have required me to learn how to run nginx on my own, install php or whatever application it uses as the middleware, etc.

Instead, I configured my DNS and ran a Docker command and was off to the races.

Server-level Open Source Software's installation process is often so complicated and has so many dependencies if it's not something you can get from your repository's package manager, at least in my experience, that docker is almost always the easiest option.

What beats a single command and maybe reading a config on what ports to forward or how to set up your config. And then you get a docker-compose if you want to be creative, yourself.

Unless you're already very skilled at dev-ops, docker is easier.




> This is especially true of NextCloud

I have a huge (personal) wiki page for installing and maintaining NextCloud from before they had a decent Docker image. Now I’m content to let it be a black box I don’t have to think about, so I run it in Docker. It saves a ton of time and hassle.

Docker adds a lot of value when devs ignore the best practice advice of putting everything in a separate container. That’s just a package manager with extra steps IMO. It’s the mini distro style containers like GitLab’s that can save you a masssive amount of time.


Only if you're already skilled at docker.


It's a fair point and a good example of why there are no absolutes, but hardly addresses the bigger point.

If you have an app that formats JSON files, are you shipping it as a Docker container? Or a linter? How about a text editor?

The number of applications where it makes sense to bundle them as VMs is quite small.




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