Top all-time · #1212
OrbStack
Company blog · orbstack.dev/blog · on HN as kdrag0nprogrammingsystems
OrbStack is the company blog at orbstack.dev, writing about programming and systems. Since 2023, 56 different Hacker News readers have linked it 65 times, most often “OrbStack: The fast, light, and easy way to run Docker containers and Linux”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Often recommended · 25 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers mention OrbStack, a macOS app for running Docker containers and Linux VMs, as a faster, lighter alternative to Docker Desktop. They also link its blog posts on filesystem, memory and debug shell.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Say goodbye to slow, clunky containers and VMs. The fast, light, and easy way to run containers and Linux. Develop at lightspeed with our Docker Desktop alternative.
Most-linked posts?
- OrbStack: The fast, light, and easy way to run Docker containers and Linux35 people · 39 mentions · first linked 2023-02-20
- /14 people · 15 mentions · first linked 2023-05-18
- Container debugging made easy: zsh, tools, packages on any image2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-03-21
- Fast Container Filesystems on macOS2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-05-22
What Hacker News says?
There are literal ads for apps in the Windows 11 start menu. That's unacceptable. Even if one day they roll it back, it will still have been unacceptable. The fact that anyone ever green-lit that decision is unforgivable for a corporation. macOS isn't perfect but the issue you point out is more of a docker problem, not an OS one. I'm told https://orbstack.dev/ is the solution.
Comment linking /
on “The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source”Submitted OrbStack: The fast, light, and easy way to run Docker containers and Linux as a story · 307 points
HN discussionI have used Podman before, and it just works. However, for the past 8 months, I've been using https://orbstack.dev/ , and I can confidently say that it's much better.
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on “I ditched Docker for Podman”Submitted OrbStack 1.0 is here! Fast, light, easy way to run Docker containers and Linux as a story · 8 points
HN discussionIf you are on a Mac, I have been using OrbStack[1] and it has been fantastic. I spin up few containers there, but my biggest use is just spinning up Alpine linux and then running most of my Docker containers in there. [1] https://orbstack.dev/
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on “I ditched Docker for Podman”Submitted Fast Container Filesystems on macOS as a story · 6 points
HN discussionBetter filesystem support ( https://orbstack.dev/blog/fast-filesystem ) and memory utilization ( https://orbstack.dev/blog/dynamic-memory )
Comment linking /blog/dynamic-memory
on “Apple announces Foundation Models and Containerization frameworks, etc”Submitted Container debugging made easy: zsh, tools, packages on any image as a story · 5 points
HN discussionOne of the reasons OrbStack is so great is because they implement their own hypervisor: https://orbstack.dev/ Apple’s stack gives you low-level access to ARM virtualization, and from there Apple has high-level convenience frameworks on top. OrbStack implements all of the high-level code themselves.
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on “Apple announces Foundation Models and Containerization frameworks, etc”Submitted Show HN: OrbStack beta – fast, light, simple Docker Desktop and Linux on macOS as a story · 4 points
HN discussionOrbstack is not free for commercial use https://orbstack.dev/pricing Orbstack owners are going to be fuming at this news!
Comment linking /pricing
on “Apple announces Foundation Models and Containerization frameworks, etc”Submitted Fast Container Filesystems on macOS as a story · 3 points
HN discussionIt's installing additional packages which may not have been included in your base image. > Debug Shell works by injecting a debugging environment using: > NixOS for a large package collection, and flexibility with filesystem paths https://orbstack.dev/blog/debug-shell?utm_source=relnotes
Comment linking /blog/debug-shell?utm_source=relnotes
on “Show HN: Container Desktop – Podman Desktop Companion”Submitted WSL2 for macOS as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI've really enjoyed using Orbstack: https://orbstack.dev/ it also has support for Linux VMs and kubernetes (although i haven't tried that yet)
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on “Show HN: Container Desktop – Podman Desktop Companion”Submitted OrbStack – Fast, lightweight Docker Desktop and Colima alternative for macOS as a story · 1 points
HN discussionIf you're on Mac worth checking out the commercial https://orbstack.dev/ Reasonable price for better dev efficiency. Free for personal use.
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on “Docker limits unauthenticated pulls to 10/HR/IP from Docker Hub, from March 1”Submitted OrbStack · Fast, Light, Simple Docker and Linux for macOS as a story · 1 points
HN discussionOrbStack | Founding Engineer | US/Europe REMOTE | Full-time | https://orbstack.dev OrbStack is making Docker containers & development environments delightful. Our app replaces Docker Desktop and makes containers faster, lighter, and easier to work with. It's the tool of choice for PlanetScale, Replicate, and other hot companies. Containers should be a joy to use, not something you have to put up with. Let's build th…
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on “Ask HN: Who is hiring? (February 2024)”This looks awesome. The amount of super lightweight and almost-disposable VM options in recent years is crazy. I remember when VMs were slow, clunky, and generally painful. I wonder how this compares to Orbstack's [0] tech stack on macOS, specifically the "Linux machines" [1] feature. Seems like Orb might reuse a single VM? --- [0] https://orbstack.dev [1] https://docs.orbstack.dev/machines/
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on “Microsandbox: Virtual Machines that feel and perform like containers”Apple hardware, yes. Fedora Asahi, maybe. OrbStack^1 provides awesome flexibility and DX/UX, w/ minimal footprint. 1. https://orbstack.dev/
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on “Framework Laptop 13 gets ARM processor with 12 cores via upgrade kit”Or maybe just switch to OrbStack: https://orbstack.dev/
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on “Leaked Apple M5 9 core Geekbench scores”On macOS you can use OrbStack [1] for a much better experience working with Docker on Mac, as well as quickly spinning up headless Linux VMs (WSL on Mac kind of thing). The free tier will probably be rug-pulled someday, but I've been using it for a couple of years and it makes my life a lot easier when I'm on macOS. [1]: https://orbstack.dev/
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on “Asahi Linux Still Working on Apple M3 Support, M1n1 Bootloader Going Rust”I replaced my Docker usage entirely with OrbStack[1] a few months ago, and have had zero issues with it so far. Great product that I happily pay a license for. My usage is fairly basic though and I'm sure mileage varies, but for my basic web dev setup it's been perfect. [1]: https://orbstack.dev/
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on “Using Podman, Compose and BuildKit”There's a "how it works" bit at https://orbstack.dev/blog/debug-shell > In particular, mount namespaces are what Docker and runc use to give each container its own image and view of the filesystem. But unlike chroot(2), you can copy an existing mount namespace into a new one. Debug Shell uses this to copy a container's namespace, creating a new view where we can inject things without them showing up in the original…
Comment linking /blog/debug-shell
on “OrbStack: The fast, light, and easy way to run Docker containers and Linux”For a brief moment, I thought this was related to https://OrbStack.dev
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on “Show HN: OpenOrb, a curated search engine for Atom and RSS feeds”Before you give up, give OrbStack a try: https://orbstack.dev/ It’s significantly faster than Docker and some users in the Discord community have been able to use it to run hand-built Linux x86 VMs on Apple Silicon. It’s a paid product though, but you can download it for free and try it out before paying.
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on “How virtualisation came to Apple Silicon Macs”I recommend checking out OrbStack[0] for containers and VMs on MacOS. It’s really, really, really awesome and performant. And it seems to be a one-man show. Really impressive. I’ve switched from docker for desktop a year ago, and it’s been a night-and-day difference. Most I’ve shown it to have very quickly switched to it as well. (I’m completely unaffiliated, just a very happy user) [0]: https://orbstack.dev/
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on “Linux virtual machines, with a focus on running containers”You might find OrbStack useful here as a replacement for Docker Desktop. So much faster and uses way less resources: https://orbstack.dev/
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on “Zed is 1.0”https://orbstack.dev
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on “Apptainer: Application Containers for Linux”
