We are going in the direction he wants us to. We're just doing it under the name "containerd" and he's unhappy that we're not calling it "Docker". If he were to simply accept our choice of naming, 100% of his issues would go away.
I think Solomon has hit the nail on the head here, but I'll call it out even more starkly.
Assuming containerd is successful, and that higher-order systems like Kubernetes and Mesos use containerd directly, we will see one of two things in 12-18 months time:
1) There are hundreds of thousands of DOCKER users
2) There are hundreds of thousands of CONTAINERD users
The split is forcing stratification (in a good way) where there previously was none. Users have to identify whether they think "docker" means "a container runtime" or "a full stack".
Of course, the pie is growing, so maybe we get both results. The real problems over the next 12-18 months are MESSAGING and DISENTANGLING. How do you get this message across to people, and can you actually change the words in the common vernacular?
As owners of the word "Docker" Solomon can define it how he likes, but that doesn't mean he can actually stop people from using it to mean something else. That's going to be a process.
c.f. "literally". Even Webster's Dictionary has given up the fight on that.
Therefore you are not going in the direction he wants you to.
The name for that is "Docker" and it has been for many years already. You can't just rename things to fit your new marketing strategy and pretend that your users won't get hurt.
If you could simply erase the memory of all inhabitants of Earth and rename all books and articles even written, then yes, there would be no issues in renaming.
I don't understand this level of outrage. In any case being outraged doesn't make you right, and it doesn't authorize you to twist the facts. So let's compare your claim that Docker was "just a container runtime" for years, and we are suddenly changing that to "fit our marketing strategy", whatever that means. For reference here is the changelog of Docker: https://github.com/docker/docker/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md
- The official website has said "Docker is a platform to build, ship and run distributed applications" since 2014, and clearly featuring the collection of multiple tools forming that platform. https://web.archive.org/web/20141216011043/https://www.docke...
- Docker started gradually factoring out its container runtime in 2013. First with libcontainer; then with runc/OCI; and most recently with containerd. https://containerd.tools
- containerd in particular exists since 2015; and it's been over a year since Docker doesn't perform any container runtime task itself - it's all handed off to containerd.
I could go on. Docker has said clearly and consistently, for several years now, that it is building a platform made of a collection of tools, including but not limited to a core container runtime. You just didn't want to hear that explanation, either because you didn't like it, or because someone other than Docker (perhaps a competitor) gave you an incorrect explanation of what Docker is.
And now that the dissonance is becoming hard to ignore, you're forced to reconcile your incorrect definition of Docker with the real definition, and it makes you angry. But, like I said, being angry doesn't make you right. And it doesn't put you above having to provide evidence of your claims. So, can you provide concrete evidence that we are "hurting our users"?
