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My question is about terminology.

When we use full virtualization, we use hypervisor as our main tool. For example, if we have Win 95 running on VMware Workstation which is running on Win 7, our "main tool" is VMware Workstation, which is hypervisor. Right?

Now, the same example, but with using Docker instead of VMware. So, we have Win 95 running inside Docker, which is running on Win 7. Obviously, we use container, but container is not the "main tool" here. How we would call this main tool? Some word instead of "hypervisor", I mean.

john c. j.
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  • Googled around. Probably this "main tool" is called **"container daemon"**? Found here: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/vm-vs-containers/ – john c. j. Jan 16 '19 at 14:38
  • "we have Win 95 running inside Docker, which is running on Win 7." - can you do that, though? Containerization is not virtualization. Kernel must be the same. – Sergio Tulentsev Jan 16 '19 at 14:42
  • @SergioTulentsev Yes, correct. My example isn't accurate, because I don't have enough knowledge. I just started to study it. – john c. j. Jan 16 '19 at 14:44
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    If you are interested in the history and the evolution of things, watch this by Bryan Cantrill: [The Container Revolution: Reflections After the First Decade](https://youtu.be/xXWaECk9XqM?t=68). – tgogos Jan 16 '19 at 15:28
  • "Primarily opinion-based?". Hmm. I'm sure it is not. It is the question about terminology, isn't it? Well, _every_ terminology question is opinion based _to some extent_. But as I know, terminology questions aren't offtopic for Stack Overflow. – john c. j. Jan 16 '19 at 17:16
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    Docker can be considered as an abstraction layer that sits on top of preexisting linux technologies (like namespaces/cgroups). From Jérôme Petazzoni / Alice Goldfuss: [*"Containers are processes, born from tarballs, anchored to namespaces, controlled by cgroups."*](https://twitter.com/jpetazzo/status/1047179436959956992). See also "Cgroups, namespaces, and beyond: what are containers made from? (DockerCon Europe 2015)" [video](https://youtu.be/sK5i-N34im8) and [slides](https://www.slideshare.net/jpetazzo/cgroups-namespaces-and-beyond-what-are-containers-made-from-dockercon-europe-2015) – tgogos Jan 17 '19 at 09:17

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This is a really good question.

Like in this wikipedia article its mentioned as Operating-system-level virtualization or containerization.

This German article about this is a bit different. For me, more understandable.

Container virtualization (also: operating system or application virtualization) is a method of operating multiple instances of an operating system (called "guests") in isolation from one another on a host system. Unlike virtualization using a hypervisor, container virtualization has some limitations on the nature of its guests, but is considered to be particularly resource-efficient.

leopal
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Gabbax0r
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