Lerd

Lighter than Docker Desktop, and at home on Linux.

What it does better

It runs on podman, so there is no virtual machine holding memory on Linux, and containers start quickly. For a Linux workstation it is the least intrusive of the four.

What it costs

It is the least used of the four. When something behaves strangely there are fewer people who have seen it before, and that shows up on the days you can least afford it.

Databases and services need care. dqx creates schemas and grants explicitly here, because the container's own entrypoint runs once and never again — a project whose password changed later cannot connect and nothing says why. That is handled, but it is the kind of sharp edge this backend has more of.

An interactive shell opens at the site root, not in the directory you are standing in. Everything non-interactive still runs where you are.

Switching

dqx switch lerd