1 yr. ago • 97%

Linux Containers Forks LXD Project As "Incus"

www.phoronix.com Linux Containers Forks LXD Project As "Incus"

32 comments

Does anyone actually use LXD? I never could figure out the deal with this.

12
- I love it. It's like a cross between virtual box and docker. You get a container that spins up fast but behaves more like a vm. You can install services, you get an ip address, etc.
  
  11
  
  But you can do all that in docker? Heck I have full GNOME installs with novnc in docker.
  
  1
- I used to use LXC maybe 5 years ago but I've since replaced everything with docker/compose. The main difference between LXC and Docker is that LXC is meant to be more like a Virtual Machine than a container. LXC containers run their own instance of systemd and can run multiple processes easily. Docker is meant to run a single process although people sometimes do hacks with supervisord or s6 overlay to run multiple processes.
  
  At the time LXC didn't really have a concept of images like Docker, it was just base images like Ubuntu 18.04 or Debian 9 and you'd shell in the container and install your stuff.
  
  LXD is a tool built on top of LXC, confusingly enough the LXD client is called lxc... It's higher level and might have the ability to use images, not sure, I never felt the need to learn it.
  
  7
  
  I've always used lxc and only recently tried docker.
  
  I really cant wrap my head around all the crazy shit docker alters on your network settings like rewriting a bunch of firewall rules without telling you
  
  Not sure if i was doing something wrong but that was my experience with docker
  
  6
- Yeah I use it through proxmox but it doesn't make much difference to me. It's practically a lower-overhead VM as far as I'm concerned
  
  6
  
  Same, cause I can't pass through my video card or my coral with the motherboard I have. So frigate runs in an lxc. When I move jellyfin over to that box, it will be an lxc too for the same reason
  
  3
- I don’t know anyone using it personally but I have seen lots of folks here and Reddit that use LXC through Proxmox, I had the same thought though.
  
  5
  
  Well hold on, LXD is a subset of LXC, that is LXC is at the heart of LXD but LXD brings with it a RESTful API written in Go to control LXC. Canonical doesn't own LXC, IBM wrote LXC.
  
  LXD and LXC became really intertwined once Docker and CoreOS Containers dropped LXC and went their own way. Basically leaving LXD as the sole claim to fame for LXC. What Incus is doing is basically providing a RESTful API on top of LXC, pretty much the exact same way LXD does exactly that as well.
  
  In fact given Canonical's Google-lite approach to dropping projects like they're hot and the maintainers that are heading to Incus, Incus is less fragmentation and more migration.
  
  the initial set of maintainers for Incus will include Christian Brauner, Serge Hallyn, Stéphane Graber and Tycho Andersen
  
  I mean that pretty much is the bulk of people that know how this software works inside and out. I just don't see Canonical (inventor of the MIR Display Server) devoting the resources to keeping up with LXD when a good bit of mind-share just moved over to Incus.
  
  This is just more of the same that's helping Canonical become less leader in the deb based distros and more just a player. Add in their wonderful call to double down on snaps and you've got a 1-2 combo they've dealt to themselves. Canonical just did the MySQL vs MariaDB to LXD. Like MySQL is still useful, but MariaDB left MySQL in terms of features and functions in the dust long ago. You use MySQL today because of name recognition. You use MariaDB when you actually need a database with actual features.
  
  And the likelihood the exact same thing happens with LXD just jumped an order of magnitude by seeing who just signed on to Incus.
  
  EDIT: And Incus has replaced LXD on the linuxcontainers.org page already. Ooof. I wouldn't want to be Canonical at the moment.
  
  10
  
  Exactly that, I have a few lxd containers on my proxmox host along with traditional vms, also have docker running inside a lxd vs a vm
  
  2
- I use it all the time, similar to how I use jails on my FreeBSD systems. Basically when I need to compartmentalize an app I launch a new instance of Alpine and install the app.
  
  As an example I have a container that has my VPN software and a browser that I know is a clean room.
  
  I run Gentoo as my main distro and sometimes a package is distributed only as a deb with very specific version dependencies I can't build. So I spin up a base Debian container and install the app. If it's X11 I can launch it into my current session and if it's console then I can always mount my home directory as a network share.
  
  3
  
  Use lxc same way, works well, used lxd that way once or twice but with a decent lxc script it worked that way.
  
  Agreed on jails, lxc finally brought that functionality to linux.
  
  2

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