
Preparing Windows Server Technical Preview for Windows Containers - CSDude
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/windowscontainers/quick_start/container_setup
======
chris-at
docker images

    
    
      REPOSITORY         TAG          IMAGE ID      CREATED       VIRTUAL SIZE
      windowsservercore  latest       9eca9231f4d4  30 hours ago  9.613 GB
      windowsservercore  10.0.10254.0 9eca9231f4d4  30 hours ago  9.613 GB
    

vs

    
    
      REPOSITORY         TAG          IMAGE ID      CREATED       VIRTUAL SIZE
      alpine             latest       31f630c65071  9 weeks ago   5.254 MB
    
    

Aren't containers supposed to be small(er)?

~~~
scooley
Don’t worry. This is an early build and you’ll see things get smaller in
future updates :).

*I work for Microsoft on these specifically.

~~~
bpye
Is this going to be through use of nano server for the container images I
guess? Or something you cannot yet share.

~~~
scooley
Bingo.

------
CSDude
For the ones, that do not want to use Windows/HyperV to prepare and use the VM
image:
[https://gist.github.com/mustafaakin/0cfbc1b4bb346a05a615](https://gist.github.com/mustafaakin/0cfbc1b4bb346a05a615)

------
therealmarv
So there are windowsservercore containers. Are they real windows? Can I run
them also from Linux?

~~~
josteink
Containers are not VMs despite often being used as such.

Windows will not run Linux-containers and Windows-containers will not run on
Linux, just like the same restriction applies the other way around.

A container typically runs with the same kernel as the host, and therefore is
restricted to be the same type of operating-system.

~~~
therealmarv
Thanks! I'm really curious what a Windows container is capable of. Many
Windows programs are dependent on GUIs. I can imagine that Windows containers
are a great testing platform. Let's see what else is possible.

~~~
dragontamer
Almost the entirety of ASP.NET and Windows Web Programming can be run
headlessly.

StackOverflow is entirely built on top of Windows and .NET. Its not
necessarily an inefficient platform, despite Window's reputation.

------
Alupis

        catch 
        {
            Write-Error $_
        }
    

Powershell is fairly new... I'm surprised Microsoft is using `$_` instead of
the common (in UNIX) `$?` to represent the current value in the pipe. It's
almost like they go out of their way to not conform to anything other OS' have
already done.

~~~
dragontamer
Conforms to Perl as "default argument".

~~~
Alupis
Hmm, I didn't realize that (not a Perl guy obviously). Even so, Perl isn't a
shell, it's a runtime/language. Whereas powershell is, a shell. I would have
expected it to be more UNIX-like in that regard.

~~~
dragontamer
> Whereas powershell is, a shell. I would have expected it to be more UNIX-
> like in that regard.

Well they don't adhere to Unix because they're trying to be better.

Pipes pass _objects_ around in Powershell, and the entirety of .NET libraries
is available for use in Powershell... including plugins and everything.

[http://www.tomsitpro.com/articles/powershell-piping-
filterin...](http://www.tomsitpro.com/articles/powershell-piping-filtering-
objects,2-771.html)

New Microsoft features are available too, like V-Server integration, Package
Management through Chocolatey and so forth.

I am not exactly a Powershell guru, but its definitely evolving in a way
superior to BASH scripting. I mean seriously, BASH is so backwards that I
can't imagine why ANYONE would seriously recommend taking cues from it.

[http://tldp.org/LDP/Bash-Beginners-
Guide/html/sect_07_01.htm...](http://tldp.org/LDP/Bash-Beginners-
Guide/html/sect_07_01.html)

~~~
vezzy-fnord
Bash isn't the end-all of Unix shells.

~~~
pjmlp
No, but it seems people nowadays (young users that equate GNU/Linux == UNIX)
only know bash.

~~~
dragontamer
I have played with ksh and others.

But when it comes down to writing something that others use, you can almost
always rely on BASH being installed on their machine.

The other shells... not so much. I hear zsh is pretty good though.

~~~
vezzy-fnord
I was more referring to the likes of es, rc and Inferno sh. The rest are all
just variants of Bourne or C shell in some way, and even then Bourne and C
don't have much in the way of compelling differences.

------
eltondegeneres
What's the appeal of using a Windows host?

~~~
shoo
Maybe you ship a software product to windows, and wish to test it.

~~~
JustSomeNobody
Who _does_ that!?

~~~
nawitus
Millions of software developers.

