Most people talk about Docker as if it’s some kind of magical technology.
It isn’t.
A Docker container is not a VM, not a runtime, and not an abstraction invented by Docker.
It’s simply Linux doing what Linux has always done, process isolation.
What people usually get wrong
When developers say:
“Docker runs applications in containers”
What they really mean is:
Linux isolates processes using namespaces
Linux limits resources using cgroups
Docker just provides a convenient interface on top of these primitives
There is no container living inside the kernel.
There are only:
processes
PID namespaces
network namespaces
filesystem isolation
resource limits
That’s it.
Why understanding this actually matters
If you think containers are “magic”, you’ll struggle with:
debugging production issues
understanding Kubernetes behavior
networking problems inside pods
memory & CPU limits not behaving as expected
Once you understand that a container is just a Linux process, things suddenly make sense.
Short visual explanation
I made a short video explaining this visually, no buzzwords, no marketing terms.
Watch here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7BjhysbXf8
TL;DR
Containers ≠ Docker
Containers ≠ Virtual Machines
Containers = Linux processes with isolation
If this sounds obvious to you — great.
If it doesn’t — this mental model will save you months of hassle with kubernetes production issues.
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