Docker Without the Hype: A Mental Model

Most Docker tutorials start with commands. That's backwards. Commands are easy to look up; the model is what people are missing.

The one idea

A container is just a process — your process — running with its own private view of the filesystem and network. That's it. Not a virtual machine, not magic. A process in a costume.

Once that clicks, images, layers, and volumes stop being jargon and become obvious consequences of one simple idea.