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Invention

Docker (Software)

Software Engineering

Docker is a software platform for building, shipping and running applications inside lightweight, portable units called containers, each packaging an application together with the exact libraries and system tools it needs to run. The French-American programmer Solomon Hykes created Docker at the platform-as-a-service company dotCloud, which he had co-founded, and introduced it publicly in March 2013 before releasing it as open-source software the same year. Rather than inventing containerization itself, which built on existing Linux kernel features such as namespaces and control groups, Docker's contribution was a simple, standardized way to build and distribute containers, and it is widely credited with popularizing containerized software deployment across the technology industry, reshaping how developers package and operate applications at scale.

Facts
Patent or First-Use Date
2013-03-20 1
Year
2013 1
Significance
Docker's own blog says it fundamentally transformed how developers build, share and run applications. 2
FAQs

Who first showed Docker to the public and where?

Solomon Hykes unveiled it at PyCon 2013.

Solomon Hykes revealed Docker to the world for the first time when he walked onto the stage at PyCon 2013, according to the Docker company's own anniversary post.
Connections

In Field

Predecessor Of

Kubernetes, Inventions
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Docker (software)
  • History, public debut sentence
    Docker debuted to the public in Santa Clara at PyCon in 2013.
  • Infobox, Initial release
    March 20, 2013
  • Lead section
    Docker was first released in 2013
  • In Group: Virtualization and Cloud Infrastructure, Lead paragraph
    uses operating system-level virtualization to deliver software in packages called containers
View the Source
2. Docker Blog: 11 Years of Docker
Paragraph 3
Quote, Paragraph 3
Docker has fundamentally transformed how developers build, share, and run applications.
View the Source
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