Using docker as full OS?

Question

Little intro: I have two OS on my pc. Linux and Windows. I need Linux for work, but it freezes on my pc, but windows does not. I've heard that is a common thing for ASRock motherboards. That's why i want to switch to Windows for work.

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So my idea was to create docker image with everything i need for work, such as yarn, make, and a lot of other stuff, and run it on windows for using linux functionality. You got the idea. I know that docker is designed to only do one thing per image, but i gave this a shot. But there are problems constantly. For example right now i'm trying to install nvm on my image, but, after building the image, command 'nvm' is not found on bash. It is a known problem and running source ~/.profile adds the command in console, but running it while building the image doesnt affect your console when you run this image. So you need to do that manually every time you use this image. People suggest putting this in .bashrc which gives segmentation error. And that's just my problem for today, but i've encountered many more, as i've been trying creating this image for a couple of days already.

So my question is basically this: is it possible to create fully operational OS in one docker image, or maybe one could connect multiple images to create OS, or do i just need to stop that and use a virtual machine like a sensible person?

Answer 1

I would recommend using a virtual machine for your use-case. Since you will be using this for work and modifying settings, and installing new software, these operations are better suited to be in a virtual machine where it is expected that you change the state or configurations. In contrast, Docker containers are generally meant to be immutable, as in the running instance of the image should not be altered or configured. This is so that others can pull down the image and it works "out-of-the-box." Additionally, most Docker containers available on Docker Hub are made to be lean, with only one or two use cases in mind and not extra (for security purposes and image size), so I expect that you would frequently run into problems trying to essentially set up a Docker image that you would be working on. Lastly, since it is not done frequently, there would be less help available online, and Docker-level virtualization does not really suit your situation.