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Singularity Container VS DockerSlim

Compare Singularity Container VS DockerSlim and see what are their differences

Singularity Container logo Singularity Container

Singularity is a container solution with a focus on building reproducible software stacks and...

DockerSlim logo DockerSlim

DockerSlim (docker-slim): Don't change anything in your Docker container image and minify it by up to 30x (and for compiled languages even more) making it secure too! (free and open source) - d...
  • Singularity Container Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-18
  • DockerSlim Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-28

Singularity Container features and specs

  • Security
    Singularity is designed with a focus on security, making it ideal for use in multi-user environments like high-performance computing (HPC) clusters. It runs containers without requiring root privileges, which helps minimize security risks.
  • Compatibility
    Singularity supports running containers as if they are native applications, providing a seamless way to integrate container workflows into existing systems. It is especially compatible with HPC environments and can run most containerized applications built for Docker.
  • Performance
    Singularity offers near-native performance, as it manages to run containers without introducing significant overhead. This is crucial for scientific and computational workloads where performance is a critical factor.
  • Ease of Use
    Singularity features a user-friendly model that allows users to easily build, manage, and run containers. Its simple command-line interface is designed to be intuitive, which facilitates smoother adoption.

Possible disadvantages of Singularity Container

  • Limited Ecosystem
    Compared to Docker, Singularity has a more limited ecosystem and community support. This can affect the availability of pre-built images and third-party tools.
  • Less Commercial Support
    Singularity has less commercial support and fewer enterprise-level solutions compared to other containerization platforms like Docker or Kubernetes, potentially leading to challenges in professional environments.
  • Lack of Advanced Features
    Singularity may not offer the same level of advanced features (such as orchestration and service discovery) found in platforms like Docker and Kubernetes, which can limit its use cases.
  • Storage and File System Management
    Singularityโ€™s approach to storage and file system management can sometimes be less flexible compared to other container technologies, which might complicate specific deployment scenarios.

DockerSlim features and specs

  • Reduced Image Size
    DockerSlim can significantly reduce the size of Docker images by analyzing and stripping away unnecessary components, leading to faster deployment and decreased storage costs.
  • Enhanced Security
    By minimizing the image footprint, DockerSlim reduces the attack surface, which can improve security by including only necessary libraries and dependencies.
  • Improved Performance
    Smaller images mean faster startup times and lower bandwidth usage, which can enhance performance when pulling images from a registry.
  • Compatibility
    DockerSlim is designed to work with existing Docker images, making it easy to integrate into existing CI/CD pipelines and workflows without requiring major modifications.
  • Open Source
    Being an open-source tool, DockerSlim can be freely used, customized, and extended, allowing developers to tailor it to specific needs without additional costs.

Possible disadvantages of DockerSlim

  • Complexity of Analysis
    The process of analyzing which components are necessary might not always be straightforward, and manual intervention may be needed to ensure critical dependencies are not removed.
  • Potential Compatibility Issues
    In some cases, stripping down images too aggressively can lead to compatibility issues where certain applications or services might encounter missing dependencies.
  • Learning Curve
    New users might face a learning curve as they get accustomed to the nuances of optimizing and managing minimal Docker images with DockerSlim.
  • Limited Language and Platform Support
    Although DockerSlim supports a variety of languages and platforms, not all are fully supported, which could limit its applicability in certain environments.
  • Debugging Challenges
    Debugging issues in a minimized image can be more challenging, as traditional tools and scripts may have been removed to reduce the image size.

Singularity Container videos

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DockerSlim videos

Analyze the structure of a Docker container with DockerSlim Xray report

More videos:

  • Review - Making a DockerSlim install script with Bash ๐Ÿš - Pt 2

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Singularity Container and DockerSlim)
Security & Privacy
34 34%
66% 66
Developer Tools
45 45%
55% 55
Monitoring Tools
0 0%
100% 100
DevOps Tools
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, DockerSlim should be more popular than Singularity Container. It has been mentiond 15 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Singularity Container mentions (4)

  • Is there any Ubuntu adopters in HPC?
    I highly recommend checking out Singularity for your computational software. Running your software within containers allows you a lot of freedom, although it does create some complexity in regards to MPI based parallelization. Source: about 3 years ago
  • How do you deploy Python applications?
    Use a singularity image to contain what you want to deploy and give access on the jump host to the image. Permissions flow from existing OS permissions. https://sylabs.io/singularity/. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • Brand New HPC Sysadmin at a Major University, Where to Start?
    Singularity This is a HPC focused container system that has large industry support. You can use this to package finicky software that only runs on specific linux distributions or only allows for RPM/Deb installations. It is also another mechanism for users to bring their own software and it integrates fairly well with both Slurm and HTCondor. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • Microsoft's Experimental OS โ€“ Singularity
    > and it was then when they came up with a pretty cool name for their new OS โ€” Singularity. Or, it was then when they (intentionally?) ripped off the name of an existing, open source, OS-related project. https://sylabs.io/singularity/. - Source: Hacker News / almost 4 years ago

DockerSlim mentions (15)

  • Docker Image Optimization: A Comprehensive Guide to Creating Smaller and More Efficient Containers
    Visit the Docker Slim GitHub repository for more information. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Are there tools that tell you if you can optimize your dockerfiles?
    I have heard of slim.ai, there core tool is open source Https://github.com/docker-slim/docker-slim. Source: about 3 years ago
  • Ask HN: Who is hiring? (April 2022)
    * We have a lightweight engineering process based on trust, self-alignment and visibility. Email me at cto@slim.ai if you'd like to learn more. P.S. Take a look at DockerSlim ( https://github.com/docker-slim/docker-slim ) if you are interested in working on the open source project that powers our SaaS. - Source: Hacker News / over 3 years ago
  • Down With the Sickness
    In last weeks blog I talked about what my plan was for release 2.9. My main areas of concern was finishing the migration to make use of the images stored in our Docker registry. The other area I was planning on taking on was to slim down those images in the registry by using Docker-Slim. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • `COPY --chmod` reduced the size of my container image by 35%
    Or you can save your time micromanaging your Dockerfile and just use docker-slim. Source: over 3 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Singularity Container and DockerSlim, you can also consider the following products

FingerprintJS - Fraud detection and prevention using browser fingerprinting with 99.5% accuracy. Stops account sharing, payment processing fraud and gaming.

Nanobox - The ideal platform for developers. Focus on code, not config.

vtop - vtop is a graphical command-line tool that uses unicode braille to chart CPU and memory usage.

htop - htop - an interactive process viewer for Unix. This is htop, an interactive process viewer for Unix systems. It is a text-mode application (for console or X terminals) and requires ncurses. Latest release: htop 2.

Node.js - Node.js is a platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications

Ctop - Commandline monitoring for containers