From chroot to Docker, Podman, and now Wasm modules: 40 years of container evolution
summary
A 40-year history of containers, tracing milestones from chroot (1979) to Linux cgroups (2008) and user namespaces (2013) that enabled Docker (2013) and runtimes like LXC → runc → containerd. It covers Borg/Kubernetes-driven scale leading to sandboxed and daemonless options such as Podman (rootless), highlights security risks (76% of containers ran as root in 2022), and introduces WebAssembly modules (WASM + WASI) as tiny portable units now supported by Docker.
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chapters (23)
- 0:00Introduction
- 4:23Key definitions: containers & runtimes
- 8:42Unix origins and chroot (1979)
- 13:21FreeBSD jails and precursors
- 14:50Linux VServer and light virtualization
- 16:16Linux namespaces and isolation
- 18:01Borg and Solaris Zones
- 19:49OpenVZ and modern containers
- 21:16Cgroups and container evolution
- 23:44LXC: first Linux containers
- 24:46Warden and container simplification
- 25:52Docker in userspace (2013)
- 27:17Docker’s birth and revolution
- 30:27Maritime container inspiration
- 32:12Docker security issues and daemon
- 35:50Docker 1.11 and RunC
- 37:18OCI and container standardization
- 38:40Podman: rootless and daemonless
- 40:06Kubernetes and CNCF
- 40:28WebAssembly and Wasm modules
- 43:36WASI and advanced security
- 44:41Docker now supports Wasm
- 45:24Resources and conclusion
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