Hey Ala,

So many people list "Docker" on their CV.

When I'm interviewing candidates, I'll ask "cool, so how are you running Docker?"

Most people can't even answer beyond "I installed Docker Desktop".

Here's what they don't know:

Docker has a dirty secret.

Every time you run a container with a default Docker install on Linux, there’s a background daemon running as root with full access to your system.

Yes, Docker added rootless mode. But it’s opt-in. Most engineers never enable it.

There is an alternative: Podman. And it’s replacing Docker in production environments everywhere.

It was built rootless from day one.

Here’s the key difference:

Docker needs a daemon. A long-running background process that manages all your containers.

If that daemon crashes, every container goes down with it.

Podman doesn’t. Each container runs as its own independent process. No daemon. No single point of failure.

Why this matters for your career:

• RHEL, CentOS, and Fedora ship with Podman, not Docker. If you work with Red Hat systems (and most enterprises do), you’re already using Podman whether you know it or not.
• Rootless containers are becoming the standard. Docker added rootless mode, but it’s not the default — you have to configure it. Podman runs rootless out of the box. No extra setup. That’s the difference between a feature and a philosophy.
• Kubernetes doesn’t use Docker anymore. Since v1.24, Kubernetes removed dockershim entirely. The industry moved on. The question is whether you have too.

The best part? Podman is CLI-compatible with Docker. You can literally 'alias docker=podman' and most of your workflows won’t break.

But here’s what most people miss: understanding WHY Podman works differently requires understanding what containers actually are under the hood.

And that’s exactly what most engineers skip.

This Thursday I’m running a free live webinar on Docker and Container Fundamentals.

I’ll break down how containers actually work at the kernel level.

The stuff that makes the Docker vs Podman difference make sense.

The stuff that separates engineers who use containers from engineers who understand them.

​Click here to register now, there are limited spots available.​

See you Thursday,

Mischa

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P.S. Can’t make it live? Register anyway — I’ll send the recording.

P.P.S. Don't want to wait? Inside KubeCraft I have the complete Docker and Container Fundamentals course ready to go — plus Kubernetes picks up right where containers leave off. It’s the full pipeline from docker run to production clusters. This is how you land six-figure DevOps jobs in 2026. Click here to start right away​

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