Hi! Question in the title.

I get that its super easy to setup. But its really worthwhile to have something that:

  • runs everything as root (not many well built images with proper useranagement it seems)
  • you cannot really know which stuff is in the images: you must trust who built it
  • lots of mess in the system (mounts, fake networks, rules…)

I always host on bare metal when I can, but sometimes (immich, I look at you!) Seems almost impossible.

I get docker in a work environment, but on self hosted? Is it really worth while? I would like to hear your opinions fellow hosters.

  • @HexareiEnglish
    20•4 months ago

    Others have addressed the root and trust questions, so I thought I’d mention the “mess” question:

    Even the messiest bowl of ravioli is easier to untangle than a bowl of spaghetti.

    The mounts/networks/rules and such aren’t “mess”, they are isolation. They’re commoditization. They’re abstraction - Ways to tell whatever is running in the container what it wants to hear, so that you can treat the container as a “black box” that solves the problem you want solved.

    Think of Docker containers less like pets and more like cattle, and it very quickly justifies a lot of that stuff because it makes the container disposable, even if the data it’s handling isn’t.