CODEWITHSUNDEEP
linuxwindowsdocker
Illidan
Illidan

Reputation: 4237

Linux Containers on Windows (LCOW) feature vs Running Linux VM on Windows

I trying to understand why LCOW feature is actually needed.

I could run Hyper-V Linux VM on my Windows, and inside it run Docker with Linux containers (correct?)

I looking into Linux Containers documentation, and it looks like not-so-mature at best (e.g. "Known Issues")

So, which benefits LCOW provides over just running Linux VM with Docker inside?

Upvotes: 4

Views: 1100

Answers (1)

Mohit Dharmadhikari
Mohit Dharmadhikari

Reputation: 4110

The only reason that LCOW was actually needed is that if you want to run both Windows and Linux containers side by side.

  1. With Linux VM, you can only run Linux containers.
  2. If you wish to run Windows containers you have to install Docker Deamon on windows as well.
  3. With LCOW, there will be only One Docker Daemon (Docker Host) running on windows managing both Windows and Linux containers.

To understand in detail, there is a similar thread on Stackoverflow. What's the difference between Docker for Windows and Docker on Windows?

If you don't wish to run Windows containers then you really don't need LCOW.

LCOW is deprecated and replaced with WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux). The latest version is WSL2 and Docker for Windows Desktop has support for it.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/about

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions