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stavrosyesterday at 6:42 PM1 replyview on HN

What do you mean? Statically linked programs depend on the kernel too.


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subhobrotoyesterday at 9:57 PM

right - that's precisely what I meant. I read your comment "Containers are just statically-linked programs for the rest of us." as "containers can be replaced by statically-linked programs".

If you didn't imply that, I apologize.

If you did mean that, I disagree with you precisely because your point works if you only care about dependency management - it falls apart on system state. A static binary is a process on the host and shares the same process space, network stack, and filesystem.

OTOH, a container is a jail (the primary usecase): I can't cgroup a static binary's memory usage or give it a virtual network interface without reimplementing "container lite". Containers aren't just 'statically linked programs' - they allow me to use the kernel as a hypervisor for isolated environments.

What they are though, a messy but practical compromise to Unikernels - which was my last point in our GP.

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