Folks, I have a node.js script running on my Windows machine that uses the dockerode npm package to talk to docker on said box and starts and kills docker containers.

However, after the containers have been killed off, docker still holds on to the memory that it blocked for those containers and this means downstream processes fail due to lack of RAM.

To counter this, I have powershell scripts to start docker desktop and to kill docker desktop.

All of this is a horrid experience.

On my Mac, I just use Colima with Portainer and couldn’t be happier.

I’ve explored some options to replace Docker Desktop and it seems Rancher Desktop is a drop-in replacement for Docker Desktop, including the docker remote API.

  1. Is this true? Is Rancher Desktop that good of a drop-in replacement?
  2. Does Rancher Desktop better manage RAM for containers that have been killed off? Or does it do the same thing as Docker Desktop and hold on to the RAM?

Are there other options which I’m not thinking of which might solve my problems? I’ve seen a few alternatives but haven’t tried them yet - moby,
containerd,
podman

I don’t actually need the Docker Desktop interface. So pure CLI docker would also just work. How are you all running pure docker on Windows boxes?

  • @dan@upvote.auEnglish
    2•1 year ago

    Terminals are probably better on linux anyway, if we really want the stone age windows tools

    Wut? The Windows tools are a lot newer than the Linux ones. Windows Terminal is better than anything preinstalled on a Linux desktop IMO

    • El BartoEnglish
      1•1 year ago

      What are some features that the new windows terminals have that linux terminals don’t?

      • @dan@upvote.auEnglish
        3•1 year ago

        It supports tabs out-of-the-box (not all the Linux ones do).
        It supports profiles so you can have easy access to different commands/shells along with keyboard shortcuts to create a new tab using a specified profile:

        Profiles aren’t just for the entire window - You can use a different profile per-tab (I think GNOME Terminal forces you to use the same profile for the entire window).
        You can customize colours and fonts per profile. Has a nice font by default (Cascadia Mono).
        It’s hardware-accelerated, so fast-scrolling text doesn’t lag.
        Full UTF-8 and UTF-16 support.
        Full accessibility (screen readers, etc) support.
        Search.

        Linux terminals may support all these features now… Which one do you use?

        • El BartoEnglish
          1•1 year ago

          Thank you! I use whatever default terminal comes with Ubuntu, and it sucks.