My TL;DR: Docker Version/Name Change Highlights

Bret Fisher -

TL;DR: Versions are now YY.MM based (like Ubuntu) and you can choose Stable (slower) or Edge (faster) releases. This means that newer features drop faster in Edge releases, and fixes are backported for a longer timeline to Stable releases. Everyone wins.

Big News: Docker versioning, release cycle, and product name has changed, but features haven't. Full details are here, but my commentary on important highlights are below:

  • Docker Engine (the free one we all know and love) is now Docker CE (Community Edition). Notice the drop of the word Engine. I suspect we can just call this Docker now. It includes the cli client and backend daemon/service and api (just like it did before). You can get it the same ways as before.
  • Docker Data Center is now Docker EE (Enterprise Edition) and adds additional paid products and support on top of Docker in three pricing tiers.
  • These changes don't affect Docker Compose or Docker Machine.
  • Docker's version is now YY.MM based, using the month of its expected release, and the first one will be 17.03.0, which is "the first point release" of the 17.03 release. If any bug/security fixes are needed to that release, the first update will be 17.03.1 etc.
  • We now have two release tracks (called variants) "Edge" and "Stable".
    • Edge is released monthly and supported for a month.
    • Stable is released quarterly and support for 4 months.
    • You can extend Stable's support and backported fixes through a Docker EE subscription.