I mean maybe but if you run your containers not via a GUI you get most of that for free or at worst with a docker logs or docker exec command.

Do people learn docker not via the CLI?

They do, then they realize that it's not the core component of their jobs (unless they're ops) and it is easier to press a "stop" button to kill containers, at least in their use case.

I did. Well, I did until I found lazydocker, a TUI that handles the majority of the day-to-day stuff that I need to do that isn't already written into tasks in my justfile: https://github.com/jesseduffield/lazydocker

I for one have been using docker on Linux for years and have to use a Mac at work, and I'm totally baffled by the fact i need to install docker desktop to use the CLI and don't get why you'd need or want the GUI.

And like I'm not all anti-GUI, it's just that docker is one of those things I've never even imagined using a GUI for

You don’t have to install docker desktop. The cli can be installed via homebrew. (Co)Lima, podman, or others, can be used to create a VM running the docker engine.

It’s just that Docker Desktop makes it easy and also provides other integrations like file system sharing etc.

I mean, it's nice to have a GUI when running multiple containers on Docker, or Kubernetes, but I've never used Docker Desktop on my work Mac either.

For Kubernetes, something like K9s [1] or Headlamp [2] works fine. I remember seeing something similar for Docker but I can't remember the name.

[1] https://k9scli.io/ [2] https://headlamp.dev/

I think there's a difference in that dropbox was targeted at regular users, not just developers.

I think docker desktop and apple's containerization are both targeted firmly at developers only.

It's like programming, sure it's possible to write code in microsoft office or xcode or vscode, but all programmers I've met opt for ed or vi.

Developers are users as well, I don't get the macho thing that developers always have to do it the hard way.

I don't get the thing that by default present cli usage as hard way compared to gui.

This can sometimes be true, but on many ocasion be the opposite: For instance I've been spending 3 hours watching an IT support techician seemingly clicking randomly everywhere to debug why the corporate sec/antivirus on my laptop is saying my configuration is not compliant. The provided gui and accompanied interface to check events is strikingly uninformative, slow and inefficient and having a simple cli tool with a -status or -report flag that would give you the reason it complain would be much easier to everyone involved.

You're assuming that the CLI tool would be any better, which in many cases are just as bad when coming from the same company.