Colima is becoming a popular open alternative to Docker Desktop. It provisions the Docker container run time in a Lima VM, configures the Docker CLI on macOS and handles port-forwarding and volume mounts. Colima uses containerd as its run time, which is also the run time on most managed Kubernetes services — improving the important dev-prod parity. With Colima you can easily use and test the latest features of containerd, such as lazy loading for container images. We've been having good results with Colima in our projects. When in the Kubernetes space, we also use nerdctl, a Docker-compatible CLI for containerd. Since Kubernetes has deprecated Docker as container run time and most managed-services (EKS, GKE, etc) are following its lead, more people will be looking to containerd native tools, hence the importance of tools like nerdctl. In our opinion, Colima is realizing its strong potential and becoming a go-to option as an alternative to Docker Desktop.
Colima is becoming a popular open alternative to Docker for Desktop. It provisions the Docker container runtime in a Lima VM, configures the Docker CLI on macOS and handles port-forwarding and volume mounts. Colima uses containerd as runtime, which is also the runtime on most managed Kubernetes services (thus improved dev-prod parity). With Colima you can easily use and test the latest features of containerd, such as lazy loading for container images. With its good performance, we're watching Colima as a strong potential for the open-source choice alternative to Docker for Desktop.
