Since its launch in March 2013, Docker has captured the hearts, minds and CLIs of developers and do it yourself ops teams. The popular platform is free for small businesses and personal use but has a paid version known as Docker Enterprise Edition. The company name stayed Docker and the open source product became CE. It now has 3 release channels: stable, beta and edge.

What is Docker?

The Docker containerization platform enables developers and sysadmins to build microservices, integrate continuous integration with delivery pipelines, create data processing systems, and more. This is accomplished through a variety of features and tools that make it easy to work with containers, including the Docker Engine, docker community edition Compose, and a set of Terminal commands.

The core of the platform is the Docker Engine, which provides client-server software that supports containers. The Engine is run as a daemon process and includes a REST API, an image registry called the Docker Hub, and a command-line interface.

An image is a package of software that contains all the files and dependencies needed to run an application in a container. A Dockerfile is a text file that, when executed, assembles an image. The Engine uses layers to combine images, making the build process fast, efficient, and scalable. It also provides version control for each layer, so that any changes to an image can be rolled back.

What is Docker CE?

Docker CE was released back in 2013, and it is free for anyone to download. This service is aimed primarily at businesses that want to develop premium applications using modern-day containers.

It comes with various features that help you manage your containers efficiently. For example, it has a single pane view of your container clusters. This feature helps you boost your productivity because you don’t have to switch between different platforms to view the progress of your applications.

The other major feature that it offers is the ability to track the status of your containers. This is beneficial because it allows you to resolve issues faster. However, one of the drawbacks of Docker CE is that it has a steep learning curve. This means that you may need to invest in more education and training for your team to use the service properly. Alternatively, you can opt to pay for the Docker EE version to avoid these challenges.

How to install Docker CE?

Docker is an open-source application that packages software in containers. These containers are lightweight virtual machines that share the operating system kernel of a host machine, making them scalable and portable across different environments. Docker is used to develop and deploy applications quickly and reliably.

The command line tools provided by Docker include a variety of options to configure and manage the tool. For example, you can set a password to protect access to sensitive commands or prevent the tool from downloading updates automatically. You can also download and update the tool using a configuration file.

You can install the Docker software on Linux, including Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch Linux and CentOS. The installation scripts for these distributions download and install the Docker repository GPG key and install dependencies without asking you for confirmation, so they may upgrade a number of packages to major versions, which can be disruptive to production systems. You can also manually configure your package management system to avoid these issues.

How to upgrade to Docker CE?

If you’re using a version of Linux that supports the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), you can upgrade to Docker CE on that system. To start, you’ll need to remove the current Docker service by running the command “sudo service docker stop”.

Then, install the latest version by executing the following command on your system: The new version will check the configured software repositories for updates and download the packages needed. It will then add the required GPG key and remove the old version of Docker from the system.

Docker CE will then be ready to use with an orchestrator like Docker Swarm or Kubernetes. As we work with customers across many industries, it’s clear that some enterprises choose to start their containerization journey with the community edition of Docker and then upgrade to EE once they have more experience and need the additional functionality. It’s important to note that both EE and CE are free for smaller businesses, education, personal use and non-commercial systems. However, enterprises that require support need to pay a subscription fee.