5 things to know about Podman Desktop for a Docker user
The 5 things to know being a Docker user by using Podman Desktop:
- Use a single UI: Podman Desktop works with several container engines, including Docker.
- The compatibility mode: How to ensure tools are working with Podman instead of Docker.
- Compose support: How to work with Compose files and Podman.
- Kubernetes support: How to use Kubernetes with Podman.
- Security: Use
rootless
mode or containers without root privileges.
Use Podman Desktop to interact with containers running in Docker
Docker Desktop provides a UI to interact with containers and images. But the UI depends on Docker API and it is not possible to use the UI with Docker and Podman at the same time.
Podman Desktop is a multi-engine UI tool. The UI is compatible with the API of Docker and Podman. It means all containers and images from all the engines at the same time are visible in the UI.
When migrating from Docker to Podman, you can use Podman Desktop to interact with containers running in Docker. Explore all commands and features of Podman Desktop and see all the resources from Docker.
Docker compatibility mode
Using Podman with Podman Desktop or with the Podman CLI is straightforward. But some tools expect to find docker
CLI or docker.sock
socket. In this case, you have to use the compatibility mode of Podman.