Alpine Linux Goes All In for Docker

The Alpine Linux distribution provides a small footprint, security-focused host operating system on which to run Docker containers.

Alpine Linux iterates quickly, with a new release out every eight weeks or less. The most recent release of Alpine is version 3.3.1, which came out Jan. 6.

Alpine Linux currently has a text-based installation method as its default, meaning there isn’t a graphical installer. Also by default, Alpine doesn’t install a graphical interface and the operating system is controlled by the command line. Users can, however, choose to install a desktop graphic user interface, post install.

As part of the Alpine Linux setup, new users get to choose which remote access administration tool they want to use. For many Linux distributions, OpenSSH is the default, while Alpine gives users a choice of OpenSSH and Dropbear. Dropbear offers some of the same functionality as OpenSSH, but with a smaller memory requirement.

Among the key tools that enable Alpine is the open-source Busybox toolset, which provides commonly used Linux/Unix features for small and embedded systems.

Alpine Linux benefits from the Grsecurity controls for Linux, which aims to improve security with memory corruption defenses and file system hardening techniques.

Alpine Linux uses the apk tools to install, upgrade and delete software running on a system.

Among the key advantages of Alpine Linux is the ability to have a small base image for a host operating system that runs Docker containers. The Docker Hub repository provides a comparison of Alpine versus Ubuntu, with the Alpine image coming in at 16MB, while Ubuntu is 232MB.

Another direct connection between Alpine Linux and Docker has to do with employment. Natanael Copa, one of the lead developers of Alpine Linux, is now a Docker Inc. employee. Solomon Hykes founder of Docker has recently pledged to migrate the Docker official image library from Ubuntu to Alpine Linux.