Docker For Windows Public Beta Is Now Available For Download

Docker launched its first beta for the project back in March, but not everybody had access to the platform since it was limited. Two months later, Docker is launching the public beta for Windows, allowing developers to more easily work with Docker in Windows 10. More than 17,000 developers were selected to take part in the limited beta, while more than 30,000 applied to get this privilege — a sure sign of developer interest in the app.

Docker is an open-source project that automates the deployment of apps inside software containers by providing an additional layer of abstraction and automation of operating system-level virtualization on Linux.

The 1.12 version of Docker introduces many advanced orchestration features requested by the Docker community and preserves Docker’s ease of use at the same time. Developers will be able to natively deploy and manage containers and entire multi-tier distributed applications by creating a distributed application bundles.

The most important features brought by this version are the following:

The native development environment is faster and more reliable thanks to the hypervisor support built into each platform. There is no need for VirtualBoxes anymore.
In-container debugging and development by improving volume support to automatically notify Docker Engine when a file changes, updating it in the container. Thanks to this feature, developers can start developing with just a text editor and Docker without installing run-times and dependencies. Developing apps with Docker is easier and faster now.
Native networking now lets Docker for Windows to work easily with VPNs.

The Docker public beta is also available for the Mac platform.

Docker containers have been downloaded more than 700 million times and the platform is used by millions of developers worldwide, benefitting mammoth organizations like eBay, the BBC, Goldman Sachs, Groupon and Spotify.

With Docker, IT organizations shrink application delivery from months to minutes, frictionlessly move workloads between data centers and the cloud and can achieve up to 20X greater efficiency in their use of computing resources.