The Docker onboarding process is not great. I learned today that, when setting up local dev environments for wordpress.org and wordcamp.org changes, there is an Open Source alternative called Colima.
- MIT-licensed.
- Drop-in runtime. wp-env, docker compose, and build scripts work unchanged.
- Lighter. No GUI, no tray process, lower memory and CPU usage.
- Lower barrier to entry. brew install, no account, no license prompt.
- MacOS and Linux only, though, for Windows there’s Rancher Desktop.
I was able to get everything up and running with Colima and didn’t notice any problems. What would change: the handbook, the wp-env quickstart, and README setup sections would point to Colima as the default, with Rancher Desktop noted as an alternative.
Thoughts?