Does anybody know whether there could be something like an open/libre container registry?
Maybe the cloud native foundation or the linux foundation could provide something like this to prevent vendor lock-ins?
I was coincidentially trying out harbor again over the last days, and it seems nice as a managed or self-hosted alternative. [1] after some discussions we probably gonna go with that, because we want to prevent another potential lock-in with sonarpoint's nexus.
Does anybody have similar migration plans?
The thing that worries me the most is storage expectations, caching and purging unneeded cache entries.
I have no idea how large/huge a registry can get or what to expect. I imagine alpine images to be much smaller than say, the ubuntu images where the apt caches weren't removed afterwards.
It's all open source software. Stupidly simple and easy to host. It's a low value commodity thing without mucb value that anyone can trivially self host. All you need is a docker capable machine (any linux machine basically) and some disk space to host the images. And a bit of operational stuff like monitoring, backups, etc. So there's an argument to be made for using something that's there, convenient, and available but not too costly. Which until recently was dockerhub. But apparently they are happy to self destruct and leave that to others.
They should take a good look at Github. If only for the simple reason that it's a natural successor to what they are offering (a free hub to host software for the world). Github actually has a container registry (see above for why). And of course the vast majority of software projects already uses them for storing their source files. And they have github actions for building the docker images from those source files. Unlike dockerhub, it's a complete and fully integrated solution. And they are being very clever about their pricing. Which is mostly free and subsidized by paid features relevant to those who get the most value out of them.
I like free stuff of course. But I should point out that I was actually a paying Github user before they changed their pricing to be essentially free (for small companies and teams). I love that of course but I was paying for that before and I think they were worth the money. And yes, it was my call and I made that call at the time.
Also worth pointing out that Github actions builds on top of the whole docker eco system. It's a valuable service that is built on top of Docker. Hosting the docker images is the least valuable thing. And it's the only thing dockerhub was ever good for. Not anymore apparently. Unlike dockerhub, Github figured out how to create value here.
Yeah, honestly the answer is still Github. I entered this industry in 1998. I remember why people don't like Microsoft. I avoid Windows like the plague and have for many years. But Github has never been anything but good for developers and open source, and that hasn't seemed to change. Microsoft can afford to fund stuff like this for developer goodwill alone, and spends much more than that already for that reason. Its not the greatest model imaginable for the sustainability of open source, but there is absolutely no indication as of yet that it's a really bad one. I mean, who the hell wants to go back to sourceforge, even before it was bought and turned into a cesspool?
Maybe the cloud native foundation or the linux foundation could provide something like this to prevent vendor lock-ins?
I was coincidentially trying out harbor again over the last days, and it seems nice as a managed or self-hosted alternative. [1] after some discussions we probably gonna go with that, because we want to prevent another potential lock-in with sonarpoint's nexus.
Does anybody have similar migration plans?
The thing that worries me the most is storage expectations, caching and purging unneeded cache entries.
I have no idea how large/huge a registry can get or what to expect. I imagine alpine images to be much smaller than say, the ubuntu images where the apt caches weren't removed afterwards.
[1] https://goharbor.io