Kitematic Run containers through a simple, yet powerful graphical user interface. Kitematic is an open source project built to simplify and streamline using Docker on a Mac or Windows PC. Kitematic automates the Docker installation and setup process and provides an intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) for running Docker containers. Technology/Standard Usage Requirements. Kitematic is described as 'Why You'll Love KitematicFast and Easy SetupKitematic’s one click install gets Docker running on your Mac and lets you control your app containers from a graphical user'. There are five alternatives to Kitematic for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Linux, Docker, Mac and GitLab.

• Docker Tutorial

• Docker Useful Resources

• Selected Reading

In the introductory chapters, we have seen the installation of Docker toolbox on Windows. The Docker toolbox is developed so that Docker containers can be run on Windows and MacOS. The site for toolbox on Windows is https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-windows/

For Windows, you need to have Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 with Hyper-V enabled.

The toolbox consists of the following components −

• Docker Engine − This is used as the base engine or Docker daemon that is used to run Docker containers.

• Docker Machine − for running Docker machine commands.

• Docker Compose for running Docker compose commands.

• Kinematic − This is the Docker GUI built for Windows and Mac OS.

• Oracle virtualbox

Kitematic

Let’s now discuss the different types of activities that are possible with Docker toolbox.

Running in Powershell

With Docker toolbox on Windows 10, you can now run Docker commands off powershell. If you open powershell on Windows and type in the command of Docker version, you will get all the required details about the Docker version installed.

Pulling Images and Running Containers

You can also now pull Images from Docker Hub and run containers in powershell as you would do in Linux. The following example will show in brief the downloading of the Ubuntu image and running of the container off the image.

The first step is to use the Docker pull command to pull the Ubuntu image from Docker Hub.

The next step is to run the Docker image using the following run command −

You will notice that the command is the same as it was in Linux.

Kitematic

This is the GUI equivalent of Docker on Windows. To open this GUI, go to the taskbar and on the Docker icon, right-click and choose to open Kitematic.

It will prompt you to download Kitematic GUI. Once downloaded, just unzip the contents. There will be a file called Kitematic.exe. Double-click this exe file to open the GUI interface.

You will then be requested to log into Docker Hub, enter through the GUI. Just enter the required username and password and then click the Login button.

Once logged in, you will be able to see all the images downloaded on the system on the left-hand side of the interface.

On the right-hand side, you will find all the images available on Docker Hub.

Let’s take an example to understand how to download the Node image from Docker Hub using Kitematic.

Step 1 − Enter the keyword of node in the search criteria.

Step 2 − Click the create button on official Node image. You will then see the image being downloaded.

Kitematic Ubuntu

Once the image has been downloaded, it will then start running the Node container.

Step 3 − If you go to the settings tab, you can drill-down to further settings options, as shown below.

• General settings − In this tab, you can name the container, change the path settings, and delete the container.

• Ports − Here you can see the different port mappings. If you want, you can create your own port mappings.

• Volumes − Here you can see the different volume mappings.

• Advanced − It contains the advanced settings for the container.

Our one click upgrade from dorm room to Docker - the Kitematic story

If you didn’t already know, Kitematic is the fastest and the easiest way to use Docker on your Mac We are super excited to announce Kitematic is going to be part of Docker family. We get to work alongside the team of developers that inspired us to start a company together. Together we will continue our mission to build easy-to-use yet powerful open source developer products at Docker.

If you haven’t tried Kitematic yet, download it here.

So why did we join Docker? The answer to that question can be found in the Kitematic story.

The Itch We Had to Scratch

It all began in our student apartment (ok - so it wasn’t a dorm room, but close enough).

After going through a number of different internships while studying engineering at the University of Waterloo, we collectively came away with a sense that there fundamentally needed to be better tools for developers and we wanted to create one. Modern web applications are inherently complex. Think of them like modern cities. They are living systems of many services, like transportation, roads and utilities that need to work together in harmony. The infrastructure to make this happen is either too cumbersome and distracting for the average developer or remained proprietary within companies. We wanted to change that.

So we made a prototype video of an online cloud development service that would synchronize code between a cloud environment and the desktop. To gauge interest, we posted the video on Hacker News. Within 24 hours, we had over 700 developers wanting to sign-up for the service. That was super exciting!

Being students, we didn’t have any budget to run such a service, so we searched for student grants. We found out both the University of Waterloo and the Government of Canada offered grants for students building technology startups. We decided to try our luck, and pitched both organizations about the idea. They believed in us, and were willing to hand us equity-free grants to get us started.

The result was Kite, which we began building in the summer of 2013, and launched a beta in October. Its purpose was to give new software developers an easy to use cloud environment to work on - that starts in one click. Within a week of launching, we had over 1,000 users trying it out and that momentum continued over the next four months with lots of positive feedback from our users. Things were going well until we realized that our costs per user were growing near linearly, and that the business model wasn’t going to be profitable even if we continued growth. We needed to make changes to our business model immediately.

With that realization, we quickly returned to the “whiteboard” to see what changes we could make or to come up with a different plan. It was at that point we reflected on some of the core principles and tools that has inspired us and all thoughts pointed to Docker, which we had been using since v0.3 to run our service. We had the idea to take Kite and apply it to Docker to build a product that makes Docker super easy to use. Then we could enable more developers to get started with Docker and ultimately creating scalable, micro-services applications. To validate this idea, we messaged many Docker users online, and set up meetings to learn about their Docker experience. Some users experienced hiccups in getting Docker setup before they could start using it. They wanted an installer to set up Docker, and a visual interface to manage it. And just like Docker did from dotCloud, we embarked on our own pivot.

The result was Kitematic. It automatically sets up everything you need to run Docker on your Mac and provides a GUI to easily run and manage Docker containers. Many developers out there already use GUIs and IDEs (e.g. Java or .NET). We believe bringing a GUI experience to Docker will make it appeal to these developers and many others. Since launching late 2014, we’ve received over 2,000 stars on our GitHub repository, and supportive comments from our users - YOU!

When we were approached by Docker to bring Kitematic into the project, we were thrilled. Now that you know our journey, it makes total sense for us to try to make the Kitematic experience a core part of the Docker experience. We want to make Docker accessible to many more developers. By joining the Docker team, the Kitematic project also gains from the combined experience of the Docker engineering team, community and ecosystem.

Now, it’s time to say that we will be upping the game once more by joining what has powered us since the beginning - Docker. Together we’ll be making your experience with Docker simpler and even more powerful.

Best of all, Kitematic will remain open source, and we will continue to maintain it. If you’d like to help please check out our roadmap on GitHub, and see how you can contribute.

I’d like to say THANK YOU to all of our users and everyone who’s helped us along the way. We wouldn’t be here without you!

Thank you,

Mike, Jeff, Sean