Talk:OS-level virtualization

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Containers disambiguation

This page needs to be added to the disambiguation page for containers

Add information about Kata Containers

Kata Containers has just released version 1.0. The technology is basically qemu but with all hardware virtualization removed. Intel has been working on it for a couple of ears and it was highly talked about at the big OpenStack meetup in Canada in May 2018. https://katacontainers.io/ --Svintoo 2018-05-29 09:14 (UTC)

Definition of container

Latest comment: 6 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

While researching for this article, I've noticed different definitions of container depending on what aspects of the technology the authors want to stress. For example, Docker defines a container as "a standard unit of software that packages up code and all its dependencies so the application runs quickly and reliably from one computing environment to another" [1], while this article (before I rewrote the lead) defined a container as an instance of a virtual userspace created thru OS-level virtualization [2]. Since Docker is the most widespread container framework, the lead should give due weight to their definition (which stresses portability). Qzekrom 💬 ^they_them 18:24, 3 March 2019 (UTC)Reply

Renaming back to “OS-level virtualisation”

Latest comment: 3 years ago5 comments3 people in discussion

I've renamed this back to OS-level virtualisation (shortening "Operating-system-level" to "OS-level" for a shorter title). Container is very Linux-specific terminology (possibly borrowing on the branding of an implementation in Solaris); I've never heard of anyone referring to FreeBSD jail or DragonFly BSD's vkernel as a container; undo an ill-discussed and Linux-specific move of something that's a very well-known operating system paradigm as-is; "container" is probably also a slang, and doesn't describe all levels of "OS-level virtualisation", either; in fact, in the prior discussion itself one of the suggestions was to rename the page either to "containers" or to "jails", which shows a very clear lack of consensus of how this should be called if a rename is to be performed, and confirms that the prior name of "OS-level virtualisation" might as well be more neutral and encyclopaedic. Do not move again unless a clear and sourced consensus is apparent. There needs to be an article about "OS-level virtualisation" for other technologies to reference, which don't use "container" terminology and aren't known as "containers", and where people would be confused by the mentions of "containers". If you think a separate article about containers is warranted, feel free to create such article, but I fail to see clear evidence supporting a rename. MureninC (talk) 02:32, 9 April 2019 (UTC)Reply

@MureninC: I think there was a clear consensus to move to "Container (virtualization)"; while one user did suggest "jail" as an alternative target, I did implicitly address that by saying that "container" seems to be the most popular name... by far. If you disagree with the move decision, please use Wikipedia:Move review to contest it instead of reverting unilaterally. Qzekrom 💬 ^they_them 05:47, 9 April 2019 (UTC)Reply

Dekimasu closed the move, so talk to him before starting a formal move review per the directions at WP:MR. Qzekrom 💬 ^they_them 05:50, 9 April 2019 (UTC)Reply

@MureninC: This name directly conflicts with the definition of virtualization and creates a dangerous misconception about what is being talked about. Virtualization implies that there's a resource that is being virtualized. In case of containerization - there isn't one. There is no virtual machine, no hypervisor, no virtual resource. It's just OS separating processes on a level of particular system APIs, such that each containerized process group gets its own data from these APIs, with no mix. Historically different techniques were used to achieve this (jails), but the containerization is the current state of the art, and as such it is the accepted nomenclature. Where it's been implemented first and whether people confuse the concept with older techniques should have no bearing on that nomenclature.

Judging by the previous comments, this rename was unilateral, and counter to the policy at Wikipedia:Article titles, which states: "Generally, article titles are based on what the subject is called in reliable sources.". Almost all of the cited sources refer to this technique as "software containers", whereas "OS-level virtualization" is only used in two of them. MrMizo (talk) 18:12, 24 October 2021 (UTC)Reply

To better illustrate the reasons behind my objection: what is being virtualized here? MrMizo (talk) 18:24, 24 October 2021 (UTC)Reply