Photon OS

Obviously Containerization is the new trendy way to do stuff (thanks to Docker for this democratization).

Since 2016; I run container but never find my dream host. In production I started CoreOS and Debian, than tried with CentOS, Ubuntu, RancherOS, Arch, AlpineLinux, OpenSUSE and probably forget few of them.

• If you focus long-term, CentOS is great;
• If you want to save you from migration, rolling-version like Arch and OpenSUSE (tumbleweed) are awesome;
• If you are limited with resources nor don't want to spend it for the host : RancherOS and Alpine is your answer;
• If you believe in security and try to do your best utopically SELinux with CentOS are the solution while more realistically AppArmor on Ubuntu, OpenSUSE or Debian 10 might help you;

At the end as you could see every OS system have is own advantage for hosting docker image. While in the cloud you will mostly found Ubuntu I opted for Alpine Linux until they drop their hardening kernel.

VMware Photon OS

While I managed ESX and ESXi over years before I strictly moved to the FLOSS; VMware Photon OS resonate quality and common sense for me.

After reading few papers and digging further; they have mostly everything I need for a docker host.

PROS

• hardening kernel
• compatible AppArmor
• rolling version
• able to apply Linux config files

CONS I must admit it is very personal and technical but

• don't support natively LVM and XFS;
• core system consume more RAM than Debian and Alpine Linux;