When I just started developing PHP applications I used Mamp or Xamp to set up a local Lamp stack. Later this became Vagrant in combination with VirtualBox and eventually Docker.

The main advantage of Docker is portability, performance and it is scalable. This pays off, especially when you work in a team.

When using commerce with Magento 2 it is possible to use the Magento Cloud Docker environment.

You may already have some experience with Docker, but it might help as a mnemonic. If this is completely new to you, it is good to read the following.

Brief introduction to docker

The main difference between Docker and a VM is mainly the architecture between the two. A VM is a computer software that mimics a real computer. For this he uses a hypervision — also called a “guest machine”.

A hypervision can be a piece of software, firmware or hardware that the VM runs on. The hypervison itself runs on a real computer, this is called the “host machine”.

The hypervison has a complete virtualization stack, such as network adapters, storage and CPU with its own operating system to run programs.

Containers and VM are similar, but the main difference between containers and a VM is that containers use the host computer kernel, which in turn shares it with other containers.

A container does not need a complete virtualization stack and its own os to run programs.

#linux #docker #devops-docker #magento-2 #magento-development #virtual-machine #what-is-a-virtual-machine #docker-php-composer