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Comment by pjmlp | Hacker News Reader

Except that Docker was originally written in Java by the former team that actually started the project, and nowadays contains modules written in OCaml taken from the MirageOS project, for the macOS and Windows variants of Docker.

So how much they got right regarding Docker's success and Go is a bit debatable.

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Docker was not written in Java. It was shell scripts, python, then go. Dotcloud was primarily a python shop.

Perhaps you are thinking of a different project?

Probably Kubernetes which was indeed Java in formative years.

You are right, I got that wrong, too late to edit now.

Kubernetes was never publicly available (open source) in any other language than Go. Early internal prototypes may have been in Java, but those bear no more resemblance to current Kubernetes than Borg does.

Kubernetes was never Java.

Found the link about its origins.

https://archive.fosdem.org/2019/schedule/event/kubernetesclu...

Yup, watching that talk at last years FOSDEM is what informed me of that part of the history also. Great talk, too!

Unless she's talking about an internal prototype that never saw a public repository, Kris is wrong.

The original prototype that saw a public repo was written by Joe and Craig in Python (mostly Craig IIRC) and lasted for all of about a week before they switched to Go.

The original crew of contributors, all from Google, came from a Java background and definitely wrote Java-flavored Go, but no version of Kubernetes was ever written in Java.

Source: I know all the principals and was a contributing member when Kubernetes was initially released.

Indeed, I got that wrong.

I think the parent was reffering to using Go in Docker containers, not using Go for implementing Docker itself.

That said, I agree that Docker was the first major project written in Go many people were exposed to and probably had some influence.

I'm just wondering, how is your line about the code taken from the MirageOS project relevant? Nobody uses the Windows and macOS variants of Docker in production.

Windows shops do use Docker in production, there are plenty of them.

It is relevant in the sense that Docker isn't 100% Go nowadays.

As an aside, do they use Windows containers in that context? Otherwise why?

Yes, for example in Azure deployments.

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