Multi-boot Mac: macOS and Ubuntu Linux - where does Docker run fastest?

Question

On a recent* Mac with a multi-boot choice of either macOS or Ubuntu Linux, on which OS does Docker run fastest on?

This multi-boot would provide booting into either of the selected OSs so that it that runs directly/natively on the machine's hardware, "on the metal".

I'd assume Docker would run fastest on Ubuntu Linux, given that Docker was originally for Linux.

With macOS, Docker uses an intermediary, HyperKit, which is a form of virtualisation. Official Reference Therefore I'm assuming that like other forms of virtualisation, like VirtualBox, there will be some kind of overhead. Though I would understand that this overhead would vary in impact depending on the particular virtualisation.

I'm looking into this as a developer setup: I'd still like to use macOS for various things but wonder if I'd get the most out of the machine's hardware capabilities if I had Ubuntu (or other Linux) for some of my work that mainly involves Docker.

*By "recent" I would be saying from more or less 2014 onwards to present.

Answer 1

Docker will run fastest on Linux, because on macOS docker has to emulate Linux, it is slower to start and restart as it has to shutdown Linux. The same holds true for Windows, BTW, where Docker is not only slower to run, it is much slower to start, much slower yet to restart, and in my experience (YMMV) very unstable.