Comment by tensor

7 days ago

> The Containerization framework enables developers to create, download, or run Linux container images directly on Mac. It's built on an open-source framework optimized for Apple Silicon and provides secure isolation between container images

That's their phrasing, which suggests to me that it's just a virtualization system. Linux container images generally contain the kernel.

> Linux container images generally contain the kernel.

No, containers differ from VMs precisely in requiring dependency on the host kernel.

  • Hmm, so they do. I assumed because you pulled in a linux distro that the kernel was from that distro is used too, but I guess not. Perhaps they have done some sort of improvement where they have one linux kernel running via the hypervisor that all containers use. Still can't see them trying to emulate linux calls, but who knows.

    • > I assumed because you pulled in a linux distro that the kernel was from that distro is used too,

      Thst's how docker works on WSL2, run it on top of a virtualised linux kernal. WSL2 is pretty tightly integrated with windows itself, stil a linux vm though. It seems kinda weird for apple to reinvent the wheel for that kind of thing for containers.

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  • They usually do contain a kernel because package managers are too stupid to realise it’s a container, so they install it anyway.