Containing the Horror — A Critique on Docker & Co (WHY2025)

For a good decade now, containerisation has been a popular solution: Addressing issues such as security, fault tolerance, and scalability, it has turned into a mainstay in IT. Though with a technology that ubiquitous, it does deserve investigation whether it has been put to good use or rather pressed into service. This talk includes a brief history of container solutions while challenging a number of common assumptions. While geared at a more seasoned audience, the presentation is very much from the perspective of the ‘plumbing layers,’ which comes with the discussion of many core concepts of Docker/OCI. Hence this should be beginner-friendly to a degree. Mild audience participation is to be expected; may contain traces of DevOps. **Keywords:** *containers; cloud; linux; docker; oci; kubernetes* Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ about this event: https://program.why2025.org/why2025/talk/MREBV9/