Red Hat recently released Podman Desktop 1.2, a graphic interface for creating, launching, and managing containers. This project is in competition with products like Rancher Desktop and Docker Desktop, and it allows developers without systemic administration skills to easily create, launch, test, and publish microservices and applications for container insulation systems. The Podman Desktop code is written in TypeScript using Electron and is distributed under the Apache 2.0 license. It offers ready-made assemblies for Linux, Windows, and macOS, which can be downloaded from the official website.
Podman Desktop supports integration with Kubernetes and OpenShift platforms, as well as the use of various Runtimes for container execution, including Podman Enterine, Podman Lima, CRC, and Docker Engine. The local developer environment can mirror the configuration of the production environment, allowing developers to simulate Kubernetes multi-sized clusters and OpenShift on their local systems. Add-ons can be created to support additional container runtimes, Kubernetes providers, and tools. For example, there are add-ons available for launching a single-sized OpenShift Local cluster and connecting to the OpenShift Developer Sandbox cloud service.
The Podman Desktop features a set of tools for controlling container images, working with POD-AMI and sections, building images from Containerfile and Dockerfile, connecting to containers through the terminal, loading images from the OCI container registry, and publishing images. It also provides resources management for containers, including memory, CPU, and storage. The platform supports converting container images and connecting to both local container insulation engines and external infrastructure based on Kubernetes.
In the latest release of Podman Desktop (1.2), several new features have been introduced:
- Buttons for launching, stopping, removing, and restarting groups of containers are now available for both Docker Compose and Podman Compose.
- The system tray widget now allows users to switch between different Kubernetes contexts.
- A button for quick renaming of images has been added.