What is the difference between a web container and docker?

Question

I was looking to host my first Java based website. I came to know that there are cloud based services that offers website hosting. But there were some unknown terminologies like already available containers and docker. I know little bit about containers such GlassFish, Tomcat etc. but I don't know much about the Docker. So What exactly is the Docker?

Answer 1

web container is about web develop， docker is about software runtime abstract，There is no relationship between them.

Answer 2

Docker is a computer program that performs operating-system-level virtualization.It uses system resources. Containers are bundled software packages that are run by docker.

A good use case for docker could be having several Java web applications with different dependencies. The dependencies could start to conflict with each other between projects. So putting each Java project into a separate Docker container can alleviate this challenge.

Web container is software that is utilized by a web server which interacts with java servlets and other java web technologies such as, JavaServer Pages / JavaServer Faces (JSF). Some of the responsibilities are for mapping of URLs, manages request and response objects.

The Web container is an interpreter for software components that extends the capabilities of a server. Where as docker is a way to package software so that it can run as expected on any machine and alleviate dependency conflicts within your work space.

Answer 3

The better analogy of a docker container, that I can imagine is a very tiny VM, where you have your environment (Ubuntu or other Linux) packaged with your application, so you are certain about the env your application will run in. The main advantage is that docker is much smaller and faster to start up.

Give a check on:

https://www.docker.com/resources/what-container