{"slug": "podman", "name": "Podman", "category": "infra", "category_name": "Infrastructure and DevOps", "description": "Daemonless open-source container engine from Red Hat, compatible with Docker images and CLI.", "recommenders": 51, "commenters": 79, "warners": 5, "score": 48.401, "rising": -4.73, "first": "2025-12-02", "latest": "2026-10-23", "why": "HN commenters like Podman as a near drop-in Docker replacement that runs existing Dockerfiles and compose files, for running rootless without a background daemon, and for managing containers as systemd services through Quadlets.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 61, "neutral": 23, "compare": 3, "warn": 5}, "spark": [0, 3, 3, 2, 2, 1, 4, 5, 31, 5, 2, 3], "listed": true, "loved": ["Docker drop-in", "Rootless security"], "caveat": "Compatibility gaps", "short_quote": "I switched to Podman because it\u2019s daemon less (no resources are used unless a container is running) and it doesn\u2019t need to run as root.", "icon": true, "domain": "podman.io", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://podman.io", "pricing": "open source", "aliases": ["Podman"], "verdict": [{"text": "HN commenters like Podman as a near drop-in Docker replacement that runs existing Dockerfiles and compose files,", "cites": [{"id": 803285104, "item_id": 50205319, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50205319", "by": "cdmckay", "date": "2026-10-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched to Podman because it\u2019s daemon less (no resources are used unless a container is running) and it doesn\u2019t need to run as root.", "excerpt": "I switched to Podman because it\u2019s daemon less (no resources are used unless a container is running) and it doesn\u2019t need to run as root. Otherwise it\u2019s basically the same and you can continue using your Dockerfiles and Docker Compose files. Unless you\u2019re doing something really fancy it\u2019s basically a drop-in replacement.", "context": "", "use_case": "running containers", "switched_from": "Docker", "story": "Docker is weird"}, {"id": 780276400, "item_id": 48767275, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48767275", "by": "cdmckay", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "we switched to Podman and it was literally as easy as installing it and pointing it at our docker-compose.yml.", "excerpt": "After Docker Desktop randomly started consuming insane amounts of memory again we switched to Podman and it was literally as easy as installing it and pointing it at our docker-compose.yml. Zero changes needed and now I don\u2019t need to keep a daemon running. Great software.", "context": "", "use_case": "container runtime", "switched_from": "Docker Desktop", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780258752, "item_id": 48766172, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48766172", "by": "kraquepype", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it was a pleasant surprise to see how how easy it was to drop it in as a replacement.", "excerpt": "I have a few containers at home and switched to podman, it was a pleasant surprise to see how how easy it was to drop it in as a replacement.", "context": "", "use_case": "home containers", "switched_from": "Docker", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780382608, "item_id": 48773913, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48773913", "by": "cbility", "date": "2026-07-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use podman and almost exclusively start containers using podman compose. Haven't noticed any issues after migrating from docker.", "excerpt": "I use podman and almost exclusively start containers using podman compose. Haven't noticed any issues after migrating from docker.", "context": "", "use_case": "running containers", "switched_from": "Docker", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}]}, {"text": " for running rootless without a background daemon,", "cites": [{"id": 803285104, "item_id": 50205319, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50205319", "by": "cdmckay", "date": "2026-10-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched to Podman because it\u2019s daemon less (no resources are used unless a container is running) and it doesn\u2019t need to run as root.", "excerpt": "I switched to Podman because it\u2019s daemon less (no resources are used unless a container is running) and it doesn\u2019t need to run as root. Otherwise it\u2019s basically the same and you can continue using your Dockerfiles and Docker Compose files. Unless you\u2019re doing something really fancy it\u2019s basically a drop-in replacement.", "context": "", "use_case": "running containers", "switched_from": "Docker", "story": "Docker is weird"}, {"id": 780256816, "item_id": 48766051, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48766051", "by": "kachnuv_ocasek", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Rootless was the reason I switched to Podman years ago. It's just so smooth", "excerpt": "Rootless was the reason I switched to Podman years ago. It's just so smooth and I don't have to worry about obscure permissions and services errors anymore.", "context": "", "use_case": "rootless containers", "switched_from": "Docker", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 776564784, "item_id": 48535299, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48535299", "by": "suprjami", "date": "2026-06-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Rootless Podman is very easy to setup, it's all I use on Debian 13", "excerpt": "For your Claude user running container, Rootless Podman is very easy to setup, it's all I use on Debian 13: https://github.com/podman-container-tools/podman/blob/main/docs/tutorials/rootless_tutorial.md Depending on what container you are running, sometimes you need to fiddle with passing volumes/devices/permissions/groups/capabilities to the container. If you are just running normal userspace programs then it's pret", "context": "Debian 13 user", "use_case": "running containers rootless", "switched_from": "", "story": "My Claude Code Setup"}]}, {"text": " and for managing containers as systemd services through Quadlets.", "cites": [{"id": 782915568, "item_id": 48932223, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48932223", "by": "xienze", "date": "2026-07-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Quadlets are great", "excerpt": "> What I use and really recommend is using systemd +/- docker Even better, systemd+podman (=quadlets). Quadlets are great, you basically can declare a compose file as a systemd unit with all the good and bad that comes with that.", "context": "", "use_case": "running containers as systemd units", "switched_from": "", "story": "Rebuilding My Homelab with Compose, Ruby, IPv6, and No Kubernetes"}, {"id": 780266592, "item_id": 48766662, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48766662", "by": "asa977", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We moved from docker to podman about 15 months ago, and I'm never going back.", "excerpt": "We moved from docker to podman about 15 months ago, and I'm never going back. I (personally) love the quadlet (read: systemd) integration, that makes it so much easier to monitor a set of running services, be they regular systemd services or containers. Running rootless is as straightforward as it gets and on top of it, podman is blazingly fast. I, personally, don't miss docker compose all that much, but I understand", "context": "", "use_case": "containers", "switched_from": "Docker", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780255872, "item_id": 48765992, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48765992", "by": "arjie", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it's been pretty simple.", "excerpt": "I set up my stuff as all Podman when I moved from a VPS to my home server and it's been pretty simple. I didn't use any of the compose functionality because I have a single DBMS of each type and just have multiple DBs on them etc. and I use podman through the systemd quadlet system. Honestly, it's been pretty flawless.", "context": "home server owner", "use_case": "home server containers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}]}, {"text": " The most common complaint is the last few percent of Docker compatibility, where podman-compose gaps and tools like skaffold break,", "cites": [{"id": 780283889, "item_id": 48767743, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48767743", "by": "porkloin", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "despite it being a good drop-in replacement like 95% of the time", "excerpt": "Quadlets are awesome and honestly I think one of the best additive things that podman has on top of the regular docker toolset. I use podman regularly, and despite it being a good drop-in replacement like 95% of the time, the 5% of the time where it isn't seamless are super painful. For example, skaffold (https://skaffold.dev/) pukes all over itself when you try to run podman as a drop in replacement. I'm sure there ", "context": "", "use_case": "Docker replacement", "switched_from": "", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780356640, "item_id": 48772290, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48772290", "by": "utopiah", "date": "2026-07-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "wow... Podman works just as well as Docker in 99.99% of my cases", "excerpt": "How my mindset changed : - What's Docker? - wow Docker is so convenient - hmmm all that convenience is creating new problems - is Docker really open? - What's Podman? - Ugh Podman is a great idea but does not work - Is Podman working better now? - ... kinda, just for testing on my machine - wow... Podman works just as well as Docker in 99.99% of my cases ... so yes except for the last .01% (e.g. rather niche https://", "context": "", "use_case": "default container engine", "switched_from": "Docker", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780304368, "item_id": 48769023, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48769023", "by": "nijave", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "It's random, little things like that which keep biting me every time I try to make the switch.", "excerpt": "Fuse overlayfs was noticeably slower than Docker's overlayfs setup. Maybe there's a way to reconfigure but I haven't checked lately. I think it was Zig (building ghostty) was broken in podman with obscure \"unknown file\" errors. Turns out that was lack of fuse-overlayfs supporting some attributes it was trying to check. It's random, little things like that which keep biting me every time I try to make the switch. I us", "context": "", "use_case": "simple container stuff", "switched_from": "", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780379073, "item_id": 48773692, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48773692", "by": "mikebelanger", "date": "2026-07-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "podman supports it natively and you can actually wrap your app containers into a single \"pod\" for easier management.", "excerpt": "podman-compose has gotten much better. I used it for a work project a few months ago, and it ran fine. That said, I know there are some random little things podman-compose doesn't support, so be careful. What I'm experimenting with right now is defining stuff with a Kubernetes yaml, which podman also supports: https://docs.podman.io/en/latest/markdown/podman-kube.1.html. It's slightly more verbose than docker-compose", "context": "", "use_case": "defining containers with Kubernetes yaml", "switched_from": "", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}]}, {"text": " and some report frustrating setup on certain systems and distros.", "cites": [{"id": 792089568, "item_id": 49505598, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49505598", "by": "0xbadcafebee", "date": "2026-08-31", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Every time I use Podman or Podman Desktop I run into the most basic problems.", "excerpt": "First they should try making a solution that works as well as Docker. Every time I use Podman or Podman Desktop I run into the most basic problems. Docker works out of the box everywhere.", "context": "", "use_case": "containers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root"}, {"id": 780279936, "item_id": 48767496, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48767496", "by": "noxvilleza", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Had similar issues with podman on a Steam Deck of mine that I use as a little home server - eventually got a configuration working fine but was a real pain.", "excerpt": "Had similar issues with podman on a Steam Deck of mine that I use as a little home server - eventually got a configuration working fine but was a real pain.", "context": "home server on Steam Deck", "use_case": "home server containers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780308144, "item_id": 48769259, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48769259", "by": "rsyring", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "This one issue has kept me from seriously considering Podman for years.", "excerpt": "As long as they refuse to support installing on Ubuntu (and other popular distros), without relying on the distro repos which are always out of date, they will continue to lose to Docker. Any serious project in this space supports as many distros as possible. It's OSS, so I'm not complaining per se, I have no right to. They owe me nothing. But this one issue has kept me from seriously considering Podman for years. Th", "context": "", "use_case": "container engine", "switched_from": "", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Docker drop-in", "summary": "Most users switched from Docker with existing Dockerfiles and compose files and few or no changes.", "quotes": [{"id": 780276400, "item_id": 48767275, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48767275", "by": "cdmckay", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "we switched to Podman and it was literally as easy as installing it and pointing it at our docker-compose.yml.", "excerpt": "After Docker Desktop randomly started consuming insane amounts of memory again we switched to Podman and it was literally as easy as installing it and pointing it at our docker-compose.yml. Zero changes needed and now I don\u2019t need to keep a daemon running. Great software.", "context": "", "use_case": "container runtime", "switched_from": "Docker Desktop", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780356640, "item_id": 48772290, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48772290", "by": "utopiah", "date": "2026-07-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "wow... Podman works just as well as Docker in 99.99% of my cases", "excerpt": "How my mindset changed : - What's Docker? - wow Docker is so convenient - hmmm all that convenience is creating new problems - is Docker really open? - What's Podman? - Ugh Podman is a great idea but does not work - Is Podman working better now? - ... kinda, just for testing on my machine - wow... Podman works just as well as Docker in 99.99% of my cases ... so yes except for the last .01% (e.g. rather niche https://", "context": "", "use_case": "default container engine", "switched_from": "Docker", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780382608, "item_id": 48773913, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48773913", "by": "cbility", "date": "2026-07-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use podman and almost exclusively start containers using podman compose. Haven't noticed any issues after migrating from docker.", "excerpt": "I use podman and almost exclusively start containers using podman compose. Haven't noticed any issues after migrating from docker.", "context": "", "use_case": "running containers", "switched_from": "Docker", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}]}, {"label": "Rootless security", "summary": "Running containers without root is described as smooth, easy to set up and more secure than Docker.", "quotes": [{"id": 780256816, "item_id": 48766051, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48766051", "by": "kachnuv_ocasek", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Rootless was the reason I switched to Podman years ago. It's just so smooth", "excerpt": "Rootless was the reason I switched to Podman years ago. It's just so smooth and I don't have to worry about obscure permissions and services errors anymore.", "context": "", "use_case": "rootless containers", "switched_from": "Docker", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 776564784, "item_id": 48535299, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48535299", "by": "suprjami", "date": "2026-06-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Rootless Podman is very easy to setup, it's all I use on Debian 13", "excerpt": "For your Claude user running container, Rootless Podman is very easy to setup, it's all I use on Debian 13: https://github.com/podman-container-tools/podman/blob/main/docs/tutorials/rootless_tutorial.md Depending on what container you are running, sometimes you need to fiddle with passing volumes/devices/permissions/groups/capabilities to the container. If you are just running normal userspace programs then it's pret", "context": "Debian 13 user", "use_case": "running containers rootless", "switched_from": "", "story": "My Claude Code Setup"}, {"id": 801674960, "item_id": 50104685, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50104685", "by": "sva_", "date": "2026-10-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Basically Podman is a more secure version of Docker.", "excerpt": "I recommend just setting up a podman container, LLM can do it for you. Basically Podman is a more secure version of Docker. I would keep stuff like secret keys outside the container and sign/push commits manually.", "context": "", "use_case": "sandboxing LLM coding agents", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenCode 2.0"}]}, {"label": "Quadlets and systemd", "summary": "Quadlets let users run containers as systemd units managed with the usual systemctl and journalctl tools.", "quotes": [{"id": 780266592, "item_id": 48766662, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48766662", "by": "asa977", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We moved from docker to podman about 15 months ago, and I'm never going back.", "excerpt": "We moved from docker to podman about 15 months ago, and I'm never going back. I (personally) love the quadlet (read: systemd) integration, that makes it so much easier to monitor a set of running services, be they regular systemd services or containers. Running rootless is as straightforward as it gets and on top of it, podman is blazingly fast. I, personally, don't miss docker compose all that much, but I understand", "context": "", "use_case": "containers", "switched_from": "Docker", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 782915568, "item_id": 48932223, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48932223", "by": "xienze", "date": "2026-07-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Quadlets are great", "excerpt": "> What I use and really recommend is using systemd +/- docker Even better, systemd+podman (=quadlets). Quadlets are great, you basically can declare a compose file as a systemd unit with all the good and bad that comes with that.", "context": "", "use_case": "running containers as systemd units", "switched_from": "", "story": "Rebuilding My Homelab with Compose, Ruby, IPv6, and No Kubernetes"}, {"id": 780313600, "item_id": 48769600, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48769600", "by": "kccqzy", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I moved in 2021.", "excerpt": "I moved in 2021. Others have pointed out that you can use podman-compose or docker-compose pointed at podman. I did something different: I switched to using systemd to manage all my containers. It was worthwhile as I can just use my usual systemctl and journalctl utilities for both containerized and non-containerized services rather than having to remember two sets of commands. I only experienced one minor issue with", "context": "homelab user", "use_case": "containers managed via systemd", "switched_from": "Docker", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}]}, {"label": "Agent sandboxing", "summary": "Commenters use Podman containers to isolate AI coding agents and untrusted Python tooling from their main system.", "quotes": [{"id": 782288240, "item_id": 48893015, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48893015", "by": "lobo_tuerto", "date": "2026-07-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use podman through a bash script to launch a container whenever I want an agent to work on one of my repos.", "excerpt": "The real solution to these kind of problems is sandboxing. I use podman through a bash script to launch a container whenever I want an agent to work on one of my repos. When done I just generate git patches and port back everything generated. In this way I'm not afraid of letting the agents totally lose on my computer.", "context": "", "use_case": "sandboxing coding agents", "switched_from": "", "story": "Grok uploaded my user directory to xAI's servers"}, {"id": 796457394, "item_id": 49778587, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49778587", "by": "finnjohnsen2", "date": "2026-09-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Safely inside podman containers too because I dont trust this fast moving python eco system at all.", "excerpt": "I use opencode + <a decent saas llm> to set up all this new ai generation stuff. GLM-5.3 is my current gun. Safely inside podman containers too because I dont trust this fast moving python eco system at all. Never do I want this running on my main OS. I have FLUX.2 klein and dev, Ideogram, LaDA-Image and SenseNova locally. Works great. Ive never touched a file. The days of making container yamls myself is over. I rea", "context": "", "use_case": "isolating AI tooling", "switched_from": "", "story": "Qwen Image 2.1"}, {"id": 760843360, "item_id": 47552710, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47552710", "by": "Ciantic", "date": "2026-03-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've been using podman, and for me it is good enough.", "excerpt": "I've been using podman, and for me it is good enough. The way I use it I mount current working directory, /usr/bin, /bin, /usr/lib, /usr/lib64, /usr/share, then few specific ~/.aspnet, ~/.dotnet, ~/.npm-global etc. I use same image as my operating system (Fedora 43). It works pretty well, agent which I choose to run can only write and see the current working directory (and subdirectories) as well as those pnpm/npm et", "context": "", "use_case": "sandboxing AI agents", "switched_from": "", "story": "Don't YOLO your file system"}]}, {"label": "Pods and Kube YAML", "summary": "Built-in pods and Kubernetes YAML support offer compose-like management of multi-container stacks.", "quotes": [{"id": 780379073, "item_id": 48773692, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48773692", "by": "mikebelanger", "date": "2026-07-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "podman supports it natively and you can actually wrap your app containers into a single \"pod\" for easier management.", "excerpt": "podman-compose has gotten much better. I used it for a work project a few months ago, and it ran fine. That said, I know there are some random little things podman-compose doesn't support, so be careful. What I'm experimenting with right now is defining stuff with a Kubernetes yaml, which podman also supports: https://docs.podman.io/en/latest/markdown/podman-kube.1.html. It's slightly more verbose than docker-compose", "context": "", "use_case": "defining containers with Kubernetes yaml", "switched_from": "", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 785228624, "item_id": 49076789, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49076789", "by": "Narushia", "date": "2026-07-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I recommend using the .kube units instead.", "excerpt": "The .container units get the job done, but if you want to manage a stack of containers and are familiar with Kubernetes, or just like YAML, I recommend using the .kube units instead.[1] [1]: https://docs.podman.io/en/stable/markdown/podman-kube.unit.5.html", "context": "", "use_case": "managing container stacks", "switched_from": "", "story": "Securing Services with Rootless Containers"}, {"id": 780298784, "item_id": 48768674, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48768674", "by": "yoyohello13", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "podman has docker-compose like management built in, in the form of pods", "excerpt": "We have a consistent wsl image for everyone. So they are all on Linux. Then we have a podman pod defined in a bash script. We have a Justfile where you can run \u2018just services\u2019 and it all \u201cjust works (tm)\u201d. Once the pod is defined you can use \u2018podman pod up/down\u2019 to interact with it, but mostly we encourage people to use the Just recipes to do the things. The thing is, podman has docker-compose like management built i", "context": "team with consistent WSL image", "use_case": "container pods for dev services", "switched_from": "", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}]}, {"label": "Fewer Docker footguns", "summary": "Unlike Docker it does not overwrite firewall rules and needs no always-running daemon.", "quotes": [{"id": 803370096, "item_id": 50210631, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50210631", "by": "freedomben", "date": "2026-10-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "This is the primary selling point of podman to me actually", "excerpt": "This is the primary selling point of podman to me actually: If you run any non-standard firewall rules (in my case I use virt-manager to run a handful of VMs using a bridge so each VM can get an IP directly on my router's subnet), some stuff may suddenly break because Docker takes a wrecking ball to the firewall rules.", "context": "runs VMs on a bridge with custom firewall rules", "use_case": "containers without firewall breakage", "switched_from": "Docker", "story": "Docker is weird"}, {"id": 792037088, "item_id": 49502318, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49502318", "by": "drnick1", "date": "2026-08-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I migrated to Podman because Docker is poorly designed and full of footguns.", "excerpt": "> I always make my user part of the docker group I don't, and I migrated to Podman because Docker is poorly designed and full of footguns. For example, it it will silently overwrite iptables rules and punch holes in your firewall.", "context": "", "use_case": "containers", "switched_from": "Docker", "story": "Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root"}, {"id": 780276400, "item_id": 48767275, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48767275", "by": "cdmckay", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "we switched to Podman and it was literally as easy as installing it and pointing it at our docker-compose.yml.", "excerpt": "After Docker Desktop randomly started consuming insane amounts of memory again we switched to Podman and it was literally as easy as installing it and pointing it at our docker-compose.yml. Zero changes needed and now I don\u2019t need to keep a daemon running. Great software.", "context": "", "use_case": "container runtime", "switched_from": "Docker Desktop", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Compatibility gaps", "summary": "A small share of cases break, including podman-compose gaps and tools like skaffold that expect Docker.", "quotes": [{"id": 780283889, "item_id": 48767743, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48767743", "by": "porkloin", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "despite it being a good drop-in replacement like 95% of the time", "excerpt": "Quadlets are awesome and honestly I think one of the best additive things that podman has on top of the regular docker toolset. I use podman regularly, and despite it being a good drop-in replacement like 95% of the time, the 5% of the time where it isn't seamless are super painful. For example, skaffold (https://skaffold.dev/) pukes all over itself when you try to run podman as a drop in replacement. I'm sure there ", "context": "", "use_case": "Docker replacement", "switched_from": "", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780356640, "item_id": 48772290, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48772290", "by": "utopiah", "date": "2026-07-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "wow... Podman works just as well as Docker in 99.99% of my cases", "excerpt": "How my mindset changed : - What's Docker? - wow Docker is so convenient - hmmm all that convenience is creating new problems - is Docker really open? - What's Podman? - Ugh Podman is a great idea but does not work - Is Podman working better now? - ... kinda, just for testing on my machine - wow... Podman works just as well as Docker in 99.99% of my cases ... so yes except for the last .01% (e.g. rather niche https://", "context": "", "use_case": "default container engine", "switched_from": "Docker", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780379073, "item_id": 48773692, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48773692", "by": "mikebelanger", "date": "2026-07-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "podman supports it natively and you can actually wrap your app containers into a single \"pod\" for easier management.", "excerpt": "podman-compose has gotten much better. I used it for a work project a few months ago, and it ran fine. That said, I know there are some random little things podman-compose doesn't support, so be careful. What I'm experimenting with right now is defining stuff with a Kubernetes yaml, which podman also supports: https://docs.podman.io/en/latest/markdown/podman-kube.1.html. It's slightly more verbose than docker-compose", "context": "", "use_case": "defining containers with Kubernetes yaml", "switched_from": "", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}]}, {"label": "Setup friction", "summary": "Some users hit basic problems or painful configuration, including rootless setup on RHEL and a Steam Deck server.", "quotes": [{"id": 792089568, "item_id": 49505598, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49505598", "by": "0xbadcafebee", "date": "2026-08-31", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Every time I use Podman or Podman Desktop I run into the most basic problems.", "excerpt": "First they should try making a solution that works as well as Docker. Every time I use Podman or Podman Desktop I run into the most basic problems. Docker works out of the box everywhere.", "context": "", "use_case": "containers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root"}, {"id": 780279936, "item_id": 48767496, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48767496", "by": "noxvilleza", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Had similar issues with podman on a Steam Deck of mine that I use as a little home server - eventually got a configuration working fine but was a real pain.", "excerpt": "Had similar issues with podman on a Steam Deck of mine that I use as a little home server - eventually got a configuration working fine but was a real pain.", "context": "home server on Steam Deck", "use_case": "home server containers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780264256, "item_id": 48766516, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48766516", "by": "hackrmn", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "These days I have all but forgotten we used to use `docker` but use `podman` instead", "excerpt": "In our shop, I wasn't one of those who knew Docker in and out, got just enough into it I could containerise applications we needed to have containerised, which was of a modest scope -- no crazy networking setup that required bleeding edge or anything like that. Anyway, after only a few months into Docker, organisation announced migration to Podman across the board. Initial impressions were soured by, ironically, poor", "context": "works at a shop running RHEL everywhere", "use_case": "containerising applications", "switched_from": "Docker", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}]}, {"label": "Ubuntu packaging", "summary": "Some sysadmins avoid it because Ubuntu users must rely on older distro-packaged versions.", "quotes": [{"id": 780308144, "item_id": 48769259, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48769259", "by": "rsyring", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "This one issue has kept me from seriously considering Podman for years.", "excerpt": "As long as they refuse to support installing on Ubuntu (and other popular distros), without relying on the distro repos which are always out of date, they will continue to lose to Docker. Any serious project in this space supports as many distros as possible. It's OSS, so I'm not complaining per se, I have no right to. They owe me nothing. But this one issue has kept me from seriously considering Podman for years. Th", "context": "", "use_case": "container engine", "switched_from": "", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780571120, "item_id": 48785695, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48785695", "by": "rsyring", "date": "2026-07-04", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Podman doesn't and I therefore have avoided using their software for years even though they have some compelling features.", "excerpt": "I think you are taking an overly simplistic and dismissive view. There's no confusion. I understand Podman's position. I'm simply saying that position keeps them from gaining enough users to really compete with Docker. I run LTS Ubuntu versions for core stability. That usually doesn't keep me from getting the latest version of software that it makes sense to keep updated. Case in point...Docker! So, on my \"old\" versi", "context": "sysadmin running LTS Ubuntu", "use_case": "containers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}]}, {"label": "Overlay performance", "summary": "One user found fuse-overlayfs noticeably slower than Docker and saw obscure build errors.", "quotes": [{"id": 780304368, "item_id": 48769023, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48769023", "by": "nijave", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "It's random, little things like that which keep biting me every time I try to make the switch.", "excerpt": "Fuse overlayfs was noticeably slower than Docker's overlayfs setup. Maybe there's a way to reconfigure but I haven't checked lately. I think it was Zig (building ghostty) was broken in podman with obscure \"unknown file\" errors. Turns out that was lack of fuse-overlayfs supporting some attributes it was trying to check. It's random, little things like that which keep biting me every time I try to make the switch. I us", "context": "", "use_case": "simple container stuff", "switched_from": "", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}]}, {"label": "Quadlet tooling", "summary": "Quadlet files lack a convenient validation command, and the systemd integration is called oversold by one user.", "quotes": [{"id": 780257520, "item_id": 48766095, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48766095", "by": "thedanbob", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched from a giant docker compose file to podman quadlets on my homelab.", "excerpt": "I switched from a giant docker compose file to podman quadlets on my homelab. IIRC it look me a little while to translate the first couple of services because there wasn't (at the time, at least) as much documentation/examples of quadlets as compose files, but after that it was a piece of cake. I highly recommend them. The only issue I have is validation, there isn't a convenient built-in command to validate quadlet ", "context": "homelab user", "use_case": "homelab containers", "switched_from": "Docker Compose", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780259088, "item_id": 48766193, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48766193", "by": "whalesalad", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "rootless podman is nice", "excerpt": "Most people simply do not care. They just want a Dockerfile to become an image, and they want to run that image. I use both... rootless podman is nice. Although the promise of ez systemd integration is a bit... oversold. I use it with systemd however with my own hand-crafted unit files. Pretty good combo.", "context": "", "use_case": "containers with systemd", "switched_from": "", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}]}, {"label": "Heavy for sandboxing", "summary": "One developer found it too heavy and complicated for lightweight sandboxing compared with bubblewrap.", "quotes": [{"id": 782462177, "item_id": 48903886, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48903886", "by": "SwellJoe", "date": "2026-07-14", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I started out implementing it with podnan, but that's also far too heavy and complicated", "excerpt": "I used lxc many years ago and used to support it in my company's products, but for this use case, bubblewrap is the obvious answer. It's exactly the right balance of isolation and simplicity. Any full container or VM thing is much heavier than a namespace with some bind mounts, which is what bubblewrap does. I started out implementing it with podnan, but that's also far too heavy and complicated, as you need to equip", "context": "", "use_case": "sandboxing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Clawk \u2013 Give coding agents a disposable Linux VM, not your laptop"}]}], "who": [{"by": "freedomben", "context": "runs VMs on a bridge with custom firewall rules", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50210631", "date": "2026-10-23"}, {"by": "jdboyd", "context": "runs a $5 VPS", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49990355", "date": "2026-10-07"}, {"by": "jsiepkes", "context": "Linux user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49239455", "date": "2026-08-09"}, {"by": "cyberax", "context": "runs a homelab build server", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49201440", "date": "2026-08-06"}, {"by": "emerongi", "context": "developer", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49052651", "date": "2026-07-25"}, {"by": "tasuki", "context": "Debian user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48769782", "date": "2026-07-02"}, {"by": "kccqzy", "context": "homelab user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48769600", "date": "2026-07-02"}, {"by": "yoyohello13", "context": "team with consistent WSL image", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48768674", "date": "2026-07-02"}, {"by": "hackrmn", "context": "works at a shop running RHEL everywhere", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48766516", "date": "2026-07-02"}, {"by": "thedanbob", "context": "homelab user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48766095", "date": "2026-07-02"}, {"by": "arjie", "context": "home server owner", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48765992", "date": "2026-07-02"}, {"by": "QuiCasseRien", "context": "NixOS user for 5 years", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48729642", "date": "2026-06-30"}], "tags": ["for homelabs", "for sandboxing AI agents", "for Docker Compose users", "for systemd users", "for macOS and Windows"], "use_cases": ["containers", "running containers", "container runtime", "rootless containers", "sandboxing coding agents", "container engine"], "compared": [{"slug": "docker", "name": "Docker", "co": 49, "switched_from": 14, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "docker-compose", "name": "Docker Compose", "co": 8, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "docker-desktop", "name": "Docker Desktop", "co": 5, "switched_from": 2, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "quadlet", "name": "Quadlet", "co": 6, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "systemd", "name": "systemd", "co": 5, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "cloudflare-tunnel", "name": "Cloudflare Tunnel", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "opencode", "name": "OpenCode", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "podman-compose", "name": "podman-compose", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48762098", "title": "Podman v6.0.0", "mentions": 31}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49499854", "title": "Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root", "mentions": 5}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50202681", "title": "Docker is weird", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49239021", "title": "Auto mode is now the default in Claude Code", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49021024", "title": "Securing Services with Rootless Containers", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48965880", "title": "Ollama: All Aboard Open Models", "mentions": 2}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 1}, "2026-01": {"neutral": 2, "recommend": 3}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-04": {"neutral": 2, "recommend": 1}, "2026-05": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 4, "compare": 1}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 3}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 31, "compare": 2, "warn": 4, "neutral": 6}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 3, "warn": 1}, "2026-09": {"neutral": 3, "recommend": 2}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 2, "recommend": 3}}, "quotes": [{"id": 803370096, "item_id": 50210631, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50210631", "by": "freedomben", "date": "2026-10-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "This is the primary selling point of podman to me actually", "excerpt": "This is the primary selling point of podman to me actually: If you run any non-standard firewall rules (in my case I use virt-manager to run a handful of VMs using a bridge so each VM can get an IP directly on my router's subnet), some stuff may suddenly break because Docker takes a wrecking ball to the firewall rules.", "context": "runs VMs on a bridge with custom firewall rules", "use_case": "containers without firewall breakage", "switched_from": "Docker", "story": "Docker is weird"}, {"id": 803285104, "item_id": 50205319, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50205319", "by": "cdmckay", "date": "2026-10-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched to Podman because it\u2019s daemon less (no resources are used unless a container is running) and it doesn\u2019t need to run as root.", "excerpt": "I switched to Podman because it\u2019s daemon less (no resources are used unless a container is running) and it doesn\u2019t need to run as root. Otherwise it\u2019s basically the same and you can continue using your Dockerfiles and Docker Compose files. Unless you\u2019re doing something really fancy it\u2019s basically a drop-in replacement.", "context": "", "use_case": "running containers", "switched_from": "Docker", "story": "Docker is weird"}, {"id": 803262400, "item_id": 50203900, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50203900", "by": "schmichael", "date": "2026-10-23", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Podman came along relatively late (2018) and benefited from a lot of Linux kernel and systemd improvements", "excerpt": "lxc never had a daemon but Canonical added one (lxd in 2015) and lxc forked it to incus to be community managed. rkt (2013) was CoreOS's alternative to Docker and was daemon-less and failed. Podman came along relatively late (2018) and benefited from a lot of Linux kernel and systemd improvements since Docker was designed. So while arguably the client/server model is outdated for container management tools, I'm not s", "context": "", "use_case": "daemonless containers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Docker is weird"}, {"id": 801674960, "item_id": 50104685, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50104685", "by": "sva_", "date": "2026-10-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Basically Podman is a more secure version of Docker.", "excerpt": "I recommend just setting up a podman container, LLM can do it for you. Basically Podman is a more secure version of Docker. I would keep stuff like secret keys outside the container and sign/push commits manually.", "context": "", "use_case": "sandboxing LLM coding agents", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenCode 2.0"}, {"id": 799845685, "item_id": 49990355, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49990355", "by": "jdboyd", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "All of those are in different containers running through podman.", "excerpt": "Here are a few things I do: Host static content behind nginx Run filestash as a partial GoogleDrive replacement (I use it for sharing files with other people, like deliverables), files place on an S3 compatible object store. Run vaultwarder for myself and some family members. Run a container registry service backed by an s3 compatible object store. Run a django web application I wrote for my own use. However, it stor", "context": "runs a $5 VPS", "use_case": "running containers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What do you run on a $5 VPS that's worth keeping online 24/7?"}, {"id": 798325505, "item_id": 49895344, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49895344", "by": "erikw", "date": "2026-09-29", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "The pattern I've settled on is using Podman quadlets for most services, but that isn't without pain either.", "excerpt": "I think it depends on what they want it for. I can imagine NixOS being perfect for user workstations for example, as an alternative to Windows workstations managed with Active Directory. I imagine you have a lot more experience than I do packaging for NixOS and other distros given your product, but in the few cases that I've needed to run a binary, I just wrap it with a flake and it's done. I also stay on NixOS stabl", "context": "", "use_case": "running services on NixOS servers", "switched_from": "", "story": "US sanctions force The Netherlands off Microsoft and toward alternative NixOS"}, {"id": 797239810, "item_id": 49827488, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49827488", "by": "DanielHB", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Just install podman, install VSCodium, add the SSH extension", "excerpt": "I have been using VSCodium (chromium-like version of VSCode) with this extension: https://github.com/jeanp413/open-remote-ssh I run the editor (and its extensions), my projects and any agent harnesses from inside a container and use that extension to get an editor. This is mostly to protect my credentials and data from malicious extensions/dependencies/rogue-agents, bu it also lets me quickly port my dev environment ", "context": "", "use_case": "dev containers", "switched_from": "", "story": "VSCode's SSH Agent Is Bananas (2025)"}, {"id": 796863152, "item_id": 49803947, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49803947", "by": "zenoprax", "date": "2026-09-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use an alias to launch a Podman container with opencode in $PWD", "excerpt": "Can you explain a bit more about the boundary between the environment and my system? Is it just giving read-only access to /usr/lib? I use an alias to launch a Podman container with opencode in $PWD. It is fully ephemeral aside from the directories I map to it (usually a couple configs). XDG_HOME is local to that working dir. My only frustration is that my image is too minimal but that can be resolved.", "context": "", "use_case": "ephemeral container for coding agent", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Drop \u2013 A rootless Linux sandbox with gVisor support"}, {"id": 796457394, "item_id": 49778587, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49778587", "by": "finnjohnsen2", "date": "2026-09-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Safely inside podman containers too because I dont trust this fast moving python eco system at all.", "excerpt": "I use opencode + <a decent saas llm> to set up all this new ai generation stuff. GLM-5.3 is my current gun. Safely inside podman containers too because I dont trust this fast moving python eco system at all. Never do I want this running on my main OS. I have FLUX.2 klein and dev, Ideogram, LaDA-Image and SenseNova locally. Works great. Ive never touched a file. The days of making container yamls myself is over. I rea", "context": "", "use_case": "isolating AI tooling", "switched_from": "", "story": "Qwen Image 2.1"}, {"id": 795277489, "item_id": 49704843, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49704843", "by": "rpoisel", "date": "2026-09-14", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Lately it supports running agents in Podman containers.", "excerpt": "I am continuously working on my AI sandbox framework: Agent Circus. Lately it supports running agents in Podman containers. It's also possible to independently update Agent harness versions without updating the CLI tool. One of the next items on the roadmap is tidying up the architecture to clearly define what's in the core of that framework and what's plugged into the framework on top of it - kind of a plugin system", "context": "", "use_case": "running agent containers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are you working on? (September 2026)"}, {"id": 792089568, "item_id": 49505598, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49505598", "by": "0xbadcafebee", "date": "2026-08-31", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Every time I use Podman or Podman Desktop I run into the most basic problems.", "excerpt": "First they should try making a solution that works as well as Docker. Every time I use Podman or Podman Desktop I run into the most basic problems. Docker works out of the box everywhere.", "context": "", "use_case": "containers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root"}, {"id": 792075009, "item_id": 49504688, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49504688", "by": "jasomill", "date": "2026-08-31", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "there's nothing as simple as Distrobox and rootless Podman to set up isolated non-root environments", "excerpt": "You're making a big assumption about how other people use their computers. If you're running mostly desktop applications on Linux, you wouldn't use sudo much either. And if anything, I use sudoish-to-actual-rootlike on Windows more than on Linux, because more things are gated behind elevated privileges (some papered over by default UAC settings, but only when manipulated through built-in GUI tools) and there's nothin", "context": "", "use_case": "rootless containers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root"}, {"id": 792041730, "item_id": 49502608, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49502608", "by": "lucideer", "date": "2026-08-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I likely would've switched to podman wholesale instead of compromising my system", "excerpt": "I don't think this is as widely known as you believe: I use dockerd via colima so it's not a limitation I've encountered - if I had, I likely would've switched to podman wholesale instead of compromising my system. Either way though, I would hope it's self-evident to most that taking glaring security holes in a single app (docker) & transforming them into glaring security holes in an entire OS is generally not desira", "context": "", "use_case": "containers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root"}, {"id": 792037088, "item_id": 49502318, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49502318", "by": "drnick1", "date": "2026-08-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I migrated to Podman because Docker is poorly designed and full of footguns.", "excerpt": "> I always make my user part of the docker group I don't, and I migrated to Podman because Docker is poorly designed and full of footguns. For example, it it will silently overwrite iptables rules and punch holes in your firewall.", "context": "", "use_case": "containers", "switched_from": "Docker", "story": "Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root"}, {"id": 792006065, "item_id": 49500379, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49500379", "by": "K0IN", "date": "2026-08-30", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I'm using podman on my host", "excerpt": "I just want to put this out there, smolmachines is a wonderful program to solve this, I use this mostly for stuff needing docker socket / docker in docker (example strix and agents). (I'm using podman on my host)", "context": "", "use_case": "containers on host", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root"}, {"id": 791606192, "item_id": 49475387, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49475387", "by": "kodoman", "date": "2026-08-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use podman for things like this, works perfect", "excerpt": "I use podman for things like this, works perfect until you want desktop applications but you can hack it about a bit to work fine with pipewire and Xephyr and you have. I feel like a lot of these desktop container systems are horrible and are quite hostile to configuring in the way you want around permissions and such and podman or docker does a better job.", "context": "", "use_case": "sandboxing desktop apps", "switched_from": "", "story": "Sovereign Tech Agency invests \u20ac500k in Flatpak"}, {"id": 787881792, "item_id": 49242612, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49242612", "by": "tremon", "date": "2026-08-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "exec podman container run --rm --read-only --network=llm", "excerpt": "Just for reference, here's my local \"devcontainer\" script: exec podman container run --rm --read-only --network=llm \\ --tmpfs=/tmp:size=128M \\ --volume=\"$1\":/workspace \\ --entrypoint=/insert/agent/here \\ container-image-here This runs the specified agent in a read-only container with only /workspace and /tmp writable. Obviously, you need to prepare the image first from a Containerfile/Dockerfile, with the required to", "context": "", "use_case": "sandboxing coding agents", "switched_from": "", "story": "Auto mode is now the default in Claude Code"}, {"id": 787831281, "item_id": 49239455, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49239455", "by": "jsiepkes", "date": "2026-08-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "run Claude in Podman", "excerpt": "Same here. I use this utility to make it easier on Linux to run Claude in Podman: https://github.com/mismosmi/ai-pod", "context": "Linux user", "use_case": "containerizing Claude", "switched_from": "", "story": "Auto mode is now the default in Claude Code"}, {"id": 787223040, "item_id": 49201440, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49201440", "by": "cyberax", "date": "2026-08-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "my entire lint workflow now takes 30 seconds", "excerpt": "Here's what I did. Step one - migrate my build workflows to Docker. My Github actions are now basically: \"checkout / set env vars from secrets / docker-compose builder run make\". I used large machine runners to run full the Docker (Podman actually) on Github first to avoid dealing with docker-in-docker complications. This step also provided some very nice robustness advantages, as I can now trigger deployments from m", "context": "runs a homelab build server", "use_case": "container builds in CI", "switched_from": "", "story": "GitHub Is Experiencing Difficulties"}, {"id": 785228624, "item_id": 49076789, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49076789", "by": "Narushia", "date": "2026-07-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I recommend using the .kube units instead.", "excerpt": "The .container units get the job done, but if you want to manage a stack of containers and are familiar with Kubernetes, or just like YAML, I recommend using the .kube units instead.[1] [1]: https://docs.podman.io/en/stable/markdown/podman-kube.unit.5.html", "context": "", "use_case": "managing container stacks", "switched_from": "", "story": "Securing Services with Rootless Containers"}, {"id": 785209424, "item_id": 49075589, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49075589", "by": "seemaze", "date": "2026-07-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The '--userns=auto' argument is a useful isolation method in both rootless and rootful Podman containers.", "excerpt": "The '--userns=auto' argument is a useful isolation method in both rootless and rootful Podman containers. This allows rootful Podman to orchestrate privileged capabilities while running the container processes in an unprivileged namespace. See the discussion here: https://github.com/podman-container-tools/podman/discussions/13728", "context": "", "use_case": "container isolation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Securing Services with Rootless Containers"}, {"id": 784842417, "item_id": 49052651, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49052651", "by": "emerongi", "date": "2026-07-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "As a developer, I use docker/podman. Works great.", "excerpt": "Sprites seems like a solid lifestyle business for a few friends, not a startup that has taken funding. As a developer, I use docker/podman. Works great. The new massive market that will open up, where grandma and grandpa are making apps, will be taken up by Lovable (and the like). Non-devs will not be using sprites. You\u2019re capturing some small percentage of existing developers. Make sure to return all the funding you", "context": "developer", "use_case": "development environments", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fly.io CEO Kurt Mackey is stepping down"}, {"id": 784429217, "item_id": 49026826, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49026826", "by": "sureglymop", "date": "2026-07-23", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use it as a podman backend", "excerpt": "You can do this with libkrun. I use it as a podman backend which works exactly as you describe here. podman run --rm -it --runtime=krun ubuntu sh", "context": "", "use_case": "container runtime", "switched_from": "", "story": "You can now run same OCI images as containers or Firecracker microVMs"}, {"id": 783802817, "item_id": 48987676, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48987676", "by": "joshdavham", "date": "2026-07-20", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Perhaps I'll give Podman a shot one of these days!", "excerpt": "I actually like Docker Desktop a lot, but then again, I've never tried any alternatives. Perhaps I'll give Podman a shot one of these days!", "context": "", "use_case": "containers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ollama: All Aboard Open Models"}, {"id": 783588465, "item_id": 48974279, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48974279", "by": "allanrbo", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Have since switched to Podman.", "excerpt": "Does anyone actually like Docker Desktop? I much preferred Docker before it had weird UI parts to too. Have since switched to Podman.", "context": "", "use_case": "containers", "switched_from": "Docker Desktop", "story": "Ollama: All Aboard Open Models"}, {"id": 783272915, "item_id": 48954557, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48954557", "by": "christophilus", "date": "2026-07-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Fedora + Niri + Foot + Podman + Neovim is better with each release.", "excerpt": "iOS has gotten worse. No doubt about it. I don\u2019t think k that\u2019s AI induced. I think Apple have lost the plot. On the other hand, Fedora + Niri + Foot + Podman + Neovim is better with each release.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Is it just me, or is software buggier across the board?"}, {"id": 782915568, "item_id": 48932223, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48932223", "by": "xienze", "date": "2026-07-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Quadlets are great", "excerpt": "> What I use and really recommend is using systemd +/- docker Even better, systemd+podman (=quadlets). Quadlets are great, you basically can declare a compose file as a systemd unit with all the good and bad that comes with that.", "context": "", "use_case": "running containers as systemd units", "switched_from": "", "story": "Rebuilding My Homelab with Compose, Ruby, IPv6, and No Kubernetes"}, {"id": 782462177, "item_id": 48903886, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48903886", "by": "SwellJoe", "date": "2026-07-14", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I started out implementing it with podnan, but that's also far too heavy and complicated", "excerpt": "I used lxc many years ago and used to support it in my company's products, but for this use case, bubblewrap is the obvious answer. It's exactly the right balance of isolation and simplicity. Any full container or VM thing is much heavier than a namespace with some bind mounts, which is what bubblewrap does. I started out implementing it with podnan, but that's also far too heavy and complicated, as you need to equip", "context": "", "use_case": "sandboxing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Clawk \u2013 Give coding agents a disposable Linux VM, not your laptop"}, {"id": 782301603, "item_id": 48893850, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48893850", "by": "westurner", "date": "2026-07-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "podman machine manages VMs:", "excerpt": "(Years ago I had puppet and cobbler provisioning VMs over PXE and then iPXE. FWIU foreman is more actively maintained than cobbler, which is built on Django web framework.) Vagrant manages VMs and virtual networks, in Ruby. ansible-molecule creates, converges, and destroys VM(s) and containers, in order to test ansible playbooks and ansible roles in clean build roots. podman machine manages VMs: - podman-container-to", "context": "", "use_case": "managing VMs and containers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Clawk \u2013 Give coding agents a disposable Linux VM, not your laptop"}, {"id": 782288240, "item_id": 48893015, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48893015", "by": "lobo_tuerto", "date": "2026-07-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use podman through a bash script to launch a container whenever I want an agent to work on one of my repos.", "excerpt": "The real solution to these kind of problems is sandboxing. I use podman through a bash script to launch a container whenever I want an agent to work on one of my repos. When done I just generate git patches and port back everything generated. In this way I'm not afraid of letting the agents totally lose on my computer.", "context": "", "use_case": "sandboxing coding agents", "switched_from": "", "story": "Grok uploaded my user directory to xAI's servers"}, {"id": 781518850, "item_id": 48844928, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48844928", "by": "tompark", "date": "2026-07-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use a custom harness in a podman container run by a non-sudoer system account.", "excerpt": "Most developers I know don't seem to care about the \"right way\" to run agents. They either yolo it on their primary dev machine, or setup a separate box (VM, VPS, Rpi, Mac mini) and let it run there with minimal protection. You could simply do the same, running Hermes or Pi on a VPS (e.g. Digital Ocean). Note that Pi has no protections so you probably ought to take extra steps. Hermes uses a container. My setup took ", "context": "", "use_case": "sandboxing agents", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Opinionated Agent Setup?"}, {"id": 780571120, "item_id": 48785695, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48785695", "by": "rsyring", "date": "2026-07-04", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Podman doesn't and I therefore have avoided using their software for years even though they have some compelling features.", "excerpt": "I think you are taking an overly simplistic and dismissive view. There's no confusion. I understand Podman's position. I'm simply saying that position keeps them from gaining enough users to really compete with Docker. I run LTS Ubuntu versions for core stability. That usually doesn't keep me from getting the latest version of software that it makes sense to keep updated. Case in point...Docker! So, on my \"old\" versi", "context": "sysadmin running LTS Ubuntu", "use_case": "containers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780507344, "item_id": 48781709, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48781709", "by": "aleqs", "date": "2026-07-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "either a cloud VM or a local podman container", "excerpt": "I have a 'node/container' abstraction at the infra/engine layer which is essentially either a cloud VM or a local podman container. The engine/infra layer can spin up more of these as needed. I have a relatively beefy dedicated machine for working with AI, which is where I do most of the testing. I aggressively try to keep costs down so the workflow DSL I have supports configurable limits which can be set at the $, t", "context": "", "use_case": "local containers for agent workflows", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Is anyone experimenting with different ways of using LLMs for coding?"}, {"id": 780382608, "item_id": 48773913, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48773913", "by": "cbility", "date": "2026-07-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use podman and almost exclusively start containers using podman compose. Haven't noticed any issues after migrating from docker.", "excerpt": "I use podman and almost exclusively start containers using podman compose. Haven't noticed any issues after migrating from docker.", "context": "", "use_case": "running containers", "switched_from": "Docker", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780379073, "item_id": 48773692, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48773692", "by": "mikebelanger", "date": "2026-07-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "podman supports it natively and you can actually wrap your app containers into a single \"pod\" for easier management.", "excerpt": "podman-compose has gotten much better. I used it for a work project a few months ago, and it ran fine. That said, I know there are some random little things podman-compose doesn't support, so be careful. What I'm experimenting with right now is defining stuff with a Kubernetes yaml, which podman also supports: https://docs.podman.io/en/latest/markdown/podman-kube.1.html. It's slightly more verbose than docker-compose", "context": "", "use_case": "defining containers with Kubernetes yaml", "switched_from": "", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780356640, "item_id": 48772290, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48772290", "by": "utopiah", "date": "2026-07-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "wow... Podman works just as well as Docker in 99.99% of my cases", "excerpt": "How my mindset changed : - What's Docker? - wow Docker is so convenient - hmmm all that convenience is creating new problems - is Docker really open? - What's Podman? - Ugh Podman is a great idea but does not work - Is Podman working better now? - ... kinda, just for testing on my machine - wow... Podman works just as well as Docker in 99.99% of my cases ... so yes except for the last .01% (e.g. rather niche https://", "context": "", "use_case": "default container engine", "switched_from": "Docker", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780353872, "item_id": 48772117, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48772117", "by": "debugnik", "date": "2026-07-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Podman has supported plugin compose (v2) for years now", "excerpt": "Podman has supported plugin compose (v2) for years now, and I believe that's the version I used before I switched to Quadlets, but I must have not needed Buildkit features back then because those are apparently still unsupported over v2.", "context": "", "use_case": "containers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780316512, "item_id": 48769782, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48769782", "by": "tasuki", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "that is exactly why I use podman: a predictable version of it is in my distro's repos.", "excerpt": "> As long as they refuse to support installing on Ubuntu (and other popular distros), without relying on the distro repos which are always out of date, they will continue to lose to Docker. Your needs are incomprehensible to me: that is exactly why I use podman: a predictable version of it is in my distro's repos. I go to docker.com and how do I even install the thing? What's \"docker sandboxes\"? Get the latest versio", "context": "Debian user", "use_case": "container engine", "switched_from": "", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780313600, "item_id": 48769600, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48769600", "by": "kccqzy", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I moved in 2021.", "excerpt": "I moved in 2021. Others have pointed out that you can use podman-compose or docker-compose pointed at podman. I did something different: I switched to using systemd to manage all my containers. It was worthwhile as I can just use my usual systemctl and journalctl utilities for both containerized and non-containerized services rather than having to remember two sets of commands. I only experienced one minor issue with", "context": "homelab user", "use_case": "containers managed via systemd", "switched_from": "Docker", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780308992, "item_id": 48769312, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48769312", "by": "thewisenerd", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "podman's been great for me on macOS for testing stuff quick", "excerpt": "podman's been great for me on macOS for testing stuff quick; which earlier used to need a whole limactl[3]/virt thing. you can set it up with qemu-user-static for --platform linux/amd64; i don't remember which i exactly used, or if official docs have been updated for it but looked something like [1] there is one sneaky bug in qemu that breaks uv [2] for cross-platform targets so i keep having to fall back to lima for", "context": "", "use_case": "running containers on macOS", "switched_from": "Lima", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780308144, "item_id": 48769259, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48769259", "by": "rsyring", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "This one issue has kept me from seriously considering Podman for years.", "excerpt": "As long as they refuse to support installing on Ubuntu (and other popular distros), without relying on the distro repos which are always out of date, they will continue to lose to Docker. Any serious project in this space supports as many distros as possible. It's OSS, so I'm not complaining per se, I have no right to. They owe me nothing. But this one issue has kept me from seriously considering Podman for years. Th", "context": "", "use_case": "container engine", "switched_from": "", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780304368, "item_id": 48769023, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48769023", "by": "nijave", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "It's random, little things like that which keep biting me every time I try to make the switch.", "excerpt": "Fuse overlayfs was noticeably slower than Docker's overlayfs setup. Maybe there's a way to reconfigure but I haven't checked lately. I think it was Zig (building ghostty) was broken in podman with obscure \"unknown file\" errors. Turns out that was lack of fuse-overlayfs supporting some attributes it was trying to check. It's random, little things like that which keep biting me every time I try to make the switch. I us", "context": "", "use_case": "simple container stuff", "switched_from": "", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780283889, "item_id": 48767743, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48767743", "by": "porkloin", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "despite it being a good drop-in replacement like 95% of the time", "excerpt": "Quadlets are awesome and honestly I think one of the best additive things that podman has on top of the regular docker toolset. I use podman regularly, and despite it being a good drop-in replacement like 95% of the time, the 5% of the time where it isn't seamless are super painful. For example, skaffold (https://skaffold.dev/) pukes all over itself when you try to run podman as a drop in replacement. I'm sure there ", "context": "", "use_case": "Docker replacement", "switched_from": "", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780279936, "item_id": 48767496, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48767496", "by": "noxvilleza", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Had similar issues with podman on a Steam Deck of mine that I use as a little home server - eventually got a configuration working fine but was a real pain.", "excerpt": "Had similar issues with podman on a Steam Deck of mine that I use as a little home server - eventually got a configuration working fine but was a real pain.", "context": "home server on Steam Deck", "use_case": "home server containers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780276400, "item_id": 48767275, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48767275", "by": "cdmckay", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "we switched to Podman and it was literally as easy as installing it and pointing it at our docker-compose.yml.", "excerpt": "After Docker Desktop randomly started consuming insane amounts of memory again we switched to Podman and it was literally as easy as installing it and pointing it at our docker-compose.yml. Zero changes needed and now I don\u2019t need to keep a daemon running. Great software.", "context": "", "use_case": "container runtime", "switched_from": "Docker Desktop", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780266592, "item_id": 48766662, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48766662", "by": "asa977", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We moved from docker to podman about 15 months ago, and I'm never going back.", "excerpt": "We moved from docker to podman about 15 months ago, and I'm never going back. I (personally) love the quadlet (read: systemd) integration, that makes it so much easier to monitor a set of running services, be they regular systemd services or containers. Running rootless is as straightforward as it gets and on top of it, podman is blazingly fast. I, personally, don't miss docker compose all that much, but I understand", "context": "", "use_case": "containers", "switched_from": "Docker", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780258752, "item_id": 48766172, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48766172", "by": "kraquepype", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it was a pleasant surprise to see how how easy it was to drop it in as a replacement.", "excerpt": "I have a few containers at home and switched to podman, it was a pleasant surprise to see how how easy it was to drop it in as a replacement.", "context": "", "use_case": "home containers", "switched_from": "Docker", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780256816, "item_id": 48766051, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48766051", "by": "kachnuv_ocasek", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Rootless was the reason I switched to Podman years ago. It's just so smooth", "excerpt": "Rootless was the reason I switched to Podman years ago. It's just so smooth and I don't have to worry about obscure permissions and services errors anymore.", "context": "", "use_case": "rootless containers", "switched_from": "Docker", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 780255872, "item_id": 48765992, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48765992", "by": "arjie", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it's been pretty simple.", "excerpt": "I set up my stuff as all Podman when I moved from a VPS to my home server and it's been pretty simple. I didn't use any of the compose functionality because I have a single DBMS of each type and just have multiple DBs on them etc. and I use podman through the systemd quadlet system. Honestly, it's been pretty flawless.", "context": "home server owner", "use_case": "home server containers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Podman v6.0.0"}, {"id": 776564784, "item_id": 48535299, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48535299", "by": "suprjami", "date": "2026-06-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Rootless Podman is very easy to setup, it's all I use on Debian 13", "excerpt": "For your Claude user running container, Rootless Podman is very easy to setup, it's all I use on Debian 13: https://github.com/podman-container-tools/podman/blob/main/docs/tutorials/rootless_tutorial.md Depending on what container you are running, sometimes you need to fiddle with passing volumes/devices/permissions/groups/capabilities to the container. If you are just running normal userspace programs then it's pret", "context": "Debian 13 user", "use_case": "running containers rootless", "switched_from": "", "story": "My Claude Code Setup"}]}