2 years ago

Here we are at the end of another week, yet again discussing the idea of replacing Docker Desktop, after SUSE announced the latest version of Rancher Desktop this week and the news made it to the top of Hacker News under the title “Rancher Desktop, a Docker Desktop Replacement.” Is there some reason I’m missing why we should be angry about being asked to pay for something that everyone uses for everything and derives a lot of value from?”

According to Sheng Liang, president of engineering and innovation at SUSE, and previously the co-founder and CEO of Rancher before its acquisition, Rancher Desktop was designed primarily as a Kubernetes development environment for the desktop and is centered around Kubernetes.

For Kubernetes developers and “some container developers,” Liang wrote in an email, it is “possible to use Rancher Desktop as a replacement for Docker Desktop.”

Of course, none of this is to mention the fact that Rancher Desktop is still just v0.5 and has a lot of growing to do, though Liang says that it is on track for general availability in 2022 with “several major features coming before GA.”