virtual machine - Running docker for windows for local development with an Ubuntu OS in production

Question

My production instance is running under Ubuntu 16 while my local machine runs under Windows 10.

In order to have a setup close to my production, I use VMs (vagrant, virtualbox, homestead). Btw, my application is a Laravel app so homestead is the route to go as per its documentation.

Since I have multiple applications that have different specifications (different OS version, different app versions), I need to set multiple VMs as well. Since VMs are resource-heavy, it tends to slow down my machine in time.

That then, I came across Docker. Will Docker for Windows and create containers and images base on my app's specification suffice or do I still need a VM then create docker containers from there?

Below is a diagram

Windows running Docker for Windows

Windows running Ubuntu VM with Docker

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65881796/running-docker-for-windows-for-local-development-with-an-ubuntu-os-in-production

Answer 1

Docker-Desktop will by default start and run a Linux VM in the background of your Windows System.

https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-windows/install/

• Hyper-V and Containers Windows features must be enabled.

You can also use WLS/2 which is basically the same thing.

https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-windows/wsl/

Jens