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- New website https://container-desktop.com/
- Github repo https://github.com/iongion/container-desktop
- Microsoft Store digitally signed/verified/virus scanned/human tested executable https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9mtg4qx6d3ks
Now with its own domain name, new name, same old name, MIT license, no telemetry, no tracking and some fun joke of pricing:
- Personal - includes support for all popular container engines in any configuration imagined, the price is 0 (zero) for a single developer with as many personalities as one can heave
- Pro - Everything in personal, plus unlimited everything - price is now 0 (zero) per month Team - Everything from pro but now 0 per user per month, up to 100 users - then 0 (zero) for the rest of the born and unborn people / ai / bots of the perceivable and unperceivable world
- Business - Everything from Team - with a slight shift of price - 0 zero
- Unlimited / Universal / Starship Enterprise - At everyone's discretion!
Don't take the list above seriously, it is just making fun, the project is totally free and open source.
## Here are the most notable remarks about what changed over the last 2 years
- Refactored connection system to allow any container engine combinations imagined
- podman is the driving engine and podman is prioritized and considered as requirement. You can now connect to podman, docker, in VMs, in WSL/LIMA/COLIMA and even SSH as long as it is properly configured.
- To avoid onboarding procedure for the impatient user - it tries to detect all by itself. Normally it should just work for GUI users, power users can define their own connections or assume control like The Borg using CLI/sockets/pipes/APIs/libpod directly.
- Released to Microsoft Store - because they have a decent one-time only fee, unlike others, this was achievable to help colleagues and friends have verified / secure and easy available installations on their machines. Microsoft did wonders with WSL and brought fun back too for developers.
- Added privacy policy (due to submission in the store)
- Changed name (also due to submission in the store )
- Too many UI improvements and bugs fixed worth mentioning
## Next steps
- Add UI metaphors for all that is offered by podman cli and libpod api - Be free and have fun
## Questions for the curious
- What made get back to it ? - Time and recent changes again, just like 2 years ago.
- Are you aware there is a Podman Desktop - No! (of course I am. It is very good actually for all the features it offers, it is unmatched)
- Are you aware there is a container-desktop - Now yes, but actually for this one I wasn't until MS approved my project as they rejected it when I submitted it for the first time with its original name, mentioning it was too close to Podman Desktop, which it was indeed, even if it was first. It was a hasty and sad decision.
- Is it dead ? is it alive ? - It is Heisenberg! If you use it, it is alive, if you don't, it is not so alive.
- Why do you like it ? - I am having fun, it helps my colleagues/students/friends understand non-superficial inner workings of containers - in the end, they jump away and use the CLI anyway! At least it gives them more visibility and understanding of containers, without assimilating outdated synonyms.
- Is it better than A / B / C - Yes, of course! (joke, who cares ?)
Cheers and have fun too!
One step closer to first stable release, it was quite an adventure since the beginning of the year when it all started.
Latest updates since previous release are quite big in functionality and bugs getting fixed:
- Added Network support
- Added Container Image security scanner reporting using trivy
- Added docker engine and docker api support
- Added configurable paths to container engines
- Added full support for LIMA on MacOS and WSL on Windows with relaying
- Added ability to generate `kube` yaml
- Added Pods support
- Faster application due to messaging infrastructure change
Plus many other bugs getting fixed, which I am grateful for being reported by patient, passionate and dedicated users world wide.
If all goes well, next big plans include
- plugin architecture
- more engines supported
- documentation and videos
- container building tool
- project support
- more scanning and intelligence tools