You do not like docker desktop? I don't like it for the reasons below:

• Resource hungry
• Not open source
• Not free
• Black box

You are in luck, this repo is just for that reason, getting rid of docker desktop.

List of alternatives:

• Combo 1:
  • lazydocker
  • colima

(Wait for more alternative combo from PR)

brew install colima

WARNING: For some users, reported issues with credentials, can be solved with installation below

brew install docker-credential-helper

brew install docker

Now you may ask why? buildx is bundled with docker desktop, if you don't install buildx colima will use a deprecated version of docker build, which will not be a good replacement for docker desktop. Hence, this step is a must.

Steps to install buildx for apple silicon (TODO: add in other systems). You need to install github cli client btw (brew install gh)

RELEASE_FILE_SUFFIX='darwin-arm64'

gh release download --repo 'github.com/docker/buildx' --pattern "*.$RELEASE_FILE_SUFFIX"
mkdir -p ~/.docker/cli-plugins
mv -f *.$RELEASE_FILE_SUFFIX ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
chmod +x ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
docker buildx version # verify installation

Below is my recommended configuration for Apple silicon colima

colima start --arch aarch64 --vm-type vz --cpu 10 --memory 16

NOTES: replace correct cpu (CORE) and memory (RAM) as to your liking

• arch : aarch64 -> apple silicon
• vm-type : vz -> apple virtulization can read more here. This is better than qemu on Docker Desktop but might have some issues (no issues for me so far).
• cpu and memory are clear!

Now you can try typing in docker info and see the result, docker is running fine just like having docker desktop. (even faster for vz)

Now you already got the docker but only in CLI but no UI. Don't worry i got a thing even better, let install lazydocker.

brew install lazydocker

Because colima doesn't use the same path for DOCKER_HOST we need to set that up properly, don't worry i got one liner for you. Just run (in MacOS).

echo export DOCKER_HOST="unix://$HOME/.colima/docker.sock" >> ~/.zshrc

You can replace .zshrc with .bashrc or if you're not using zsh, but zsh is the default on MacOS now.

Now you can just run the UI by run this in the terminal

lazydocker

You you wish to contribute your own "combo" to get rid of Docker Desktop, please feel free to make a PR directly to this repo. Let's make docker open source and awesome!