I built a lightweight Docker engine for Windows: no WSL, 322 MiB idle

Описание и применение

hyperbutler — легковесный Docker‑двигатель для Windows, который использует 5× меньше памяти и 4× меньше диска, чем Docker Desktop, но не поддерживает Kubernetes и GUI.

Задача

Running Linux containers on Windows with Docker Desktop consumes excessive memory, disk space, and requires a paid subscription for larger companies.

Результат

hyperbutler achieves comparable functionality to Docker Desktop while using 5× less memory, 4× less disk, and no WSL, but lacks Kubernetes, Windows containers, and GUI features.

Рабочий процесс

• Install hyperbutler from zip or MSI
• Run hyperbutler start docker run … to start a container
• Use standard Docker CLI/Compose with hyperbutler context
• Stop with hyperbutler stop

Доказательства

hyperbutler is an open‑source (Apache‑2.0) Docker engine for Windows 11. It boots a minimal Linux VM straight through the Windows Host Compute Service (HCS, the same API WSL 2 uses underneath), runs dockerd inside it, and exposes the Docker API on a Windows named pipe. No WSL.

Источник

Idle memory, VM running: hyperbutler 322 MiB, Docker Desktop 1.7–2.7 GB.

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Disk 5 min after deleting ~5 GB of images: hyperbutler 1.5 GiB given back automatically, Docker Desktop 6.8 GiB kept.

Источник

hyperbutler runs Linux containers with the Docker CLI and Compose, and that's it. If you need any of those other things, this isn't for you yet.

Источник