Operating Systems Still Matter In a Containerized World

New submitter Jason Baker writes: With the rise of Docker containers as an alternative for deploying complex server-based applications, one might wonder, does the operating system even matter anymore? Certainly the question gets asked periodically. Gordon Haff makes the argument on Opensource.com that the operating system is still very much alive and kicking, and that a hardened, tuned, reliable operating system is just as important to the success of applications as it was in the pre-container data center.

Docker needs an OS to run, duh!

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember Matthew 7:26: A foolish man built his house on sand.

Advert?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is this just an advert for Docker?

Everything new is old

[starfishsystems]

"The operating system is therefore not being configured, tuned, integrated, and ultimately married to a single application as was the historic norm, but it's no less important for that change."

What? I had to read this a couple of times. The historic norm was for a single operating system to serve multiple applications. Only with the advent of distributed computing did it become feasible, and only with commodity hardware did it become cost-effective, to dedicate a system instance to a single application. Specialized systems for special purposes came into use first, but the phenomenon didn't really begin to take off in a general way until around 1995.