Docker Model Runner

Be aware of licensing restrictions. Docker Desktop is free for personal use, but it requires a paid license if you work for an organization sized 250+. This feature seems to be available in Docker Desktop only.

Note: I'm part of the team developing this feature.

Soon (end of May, according to the current roadmap) this feature will also be available with the Docker Engine (so not only as part of Docker Desktop).

As a reminder, Docker Engine is the Community Edition, Open Source and free for everyone.

Is it still the case that you can't run Docker Engine Community Edition on a windows machine?

My understanding has always been that Docker Engine was only available directly on Linux. If you are running another operating system then you will need to run Docker Desktop (which, in turn, runs a Docker Engine instance in a VM).

This comment kind of makes it sound like maybe you can run Docker Engine directly on these operating systems (MacOS, Windows, etc.), is that the case?

Quick note that on Windows you don't need docker desktop. It's convenient, but regular docker can be run in WSL2 (which is the same VM that docker desktop uses).

I wanted to offer that the (Rancher Desktop, lima, colima, etc) products also launch a virtual machine and install docker on it, so one doesn't need Docker Desktop to do that. My experience has been that the choice of "frontend" to manage the VM and its software largely comes down to one's comfort level with the CLI, and/or how much customization one wishes over that experience

Docker Engine uses a feature of the Linux kernel called namespaces. Alternate OSes require a Linux VM. As another commenter mentioned, apps like Orbstack, Podman Desktop, and Docker Desktop provide a facility to create such a VM.

(disclaimer: I'm leading the Docker Model Runner team at Docker)

You were always able to manually install Docker CE within WSL2 on Windows. But if you want to have an integrated Docker experience on the Windows host, you need to use Docker Desktop, which will ship it's own Linux VM and performs the transparent integration with the Windows host.

This is fully independent of the Docker Model Runner feature thought :)